Ireland 2040 Position Paper Summary & Briefs Chapter 1
Welcome to the Rural Policy Hub Summary and Briefs of the Ireland 2040 position paper on a new National Planning Framework (NPF) currently open for public consultation. The NPF follows on from the 2002 National Spatial Strategy.
The consultation document was launched by Minister Simon Coveney on February 2nd 2017. It is the first time that the public at large has had the opportunity to submit observations about a proposed spatial strategy. The Rural Policy Hub has examined the 54-page paper in detail and has written a summary of each chapter. These summaries will be published on our Blog page over the next seven business days beginning today and continuing to next Thursday February 23rd. It is hoped that these summaries will assist those who may not otherwise be able to read the full document (organisations, SMEs, micro-businesses and the public in general) to be in a position to submit informed observations to this consultation paper.
It should be noted that these summaries are objective outlines of the consulatation document. They are not our opinions but are based on what The Rural Policy Hub considers as key elements in the document and other organisations/individuals might choose other elements to highlight. The summaries are not commentaries: we will publish commentaries in future blogs that will eventually form part of our submission in response to the public consultation.
The consultation paper contains 7 chapters as follows:
- Introduction
- National Planning Challenges
- Peoples Health & Well-being
- A Place-Making Strategy
- Environment – Sustainability
- Future Infrastructure
- Implementation of the 2040 NPF
Today’s blog focuses on Chapter 1, the introduction to the NPF and therefore is relatively 'light' compared to the next six summaries. However this chapter includes the important details of the process of responding to the public consultation. We will publish these again with the last chapter summary. We begin with them here:
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS:
Deadline for Receipt: March 16th 2017 at 12 Noon
3 methods:
- By email to: npf@housing.gov.ie
- On the Ireland 2040 website: www.ireland2040.ie and follow instructions
- By post: to:
NPF Submissions
Forward Planning Section
Dept. Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government
Custom House
Dublin
D01 W6X0
Submissions must include:
- Your name and, if you represent an organisation, community group or company, provide their details
- Your address for correspondence
- Relevant planning issues for the NPF that are:
- Nationally significant
- Strategic in nature
- Spatial or place-based in focus
Further submissions may be made later in the year pending review of material received in this initial consultation round. A graphic of the phases of development of a NPF preparation copied from page 6 of the document can be seen below. On the left in blue boxes are the environmental elements that must accompany the NPF and on the right in green boxes are the administrative elements including public consultation.
This is a spatial development plan which considers key social, economic and environment factors. It is expected that the NPF will lead on future decision making regarding:
- Housing
- Jobs
- Transport
- Education
- Health
- Environment
- Energy
- Communications
Relevant Government departments re all of the above elements will be coordinated in the plan.
It is hoped that the plan will have statutory backing and will be the lynchpin of all other plans and strategies at a city, county and regional level.
It should also provide clarity for future private sector investment.
The key question for everyone to consider when submitting their comments is:
“What sort of place should Ireland be in 2040 and what do we need to do to achieve this?”
Each day, The Rural Policy Hub will include quotes from the consultation paper that we think are relevant to a comprehensive submission along with the page number on which they appear in the paper. Today’s quote is:
“In order to ensure that positive outcomes arising from national growth can be shared by people throughout Ireland, the potential of all areas will need to be realised, relative to their capacity for sustainable development” (P.6)
In other words, we don’t want uneven development in the future where some regions or pockets of the country are left out and others benefit hugely. But any development must be based on individual strengths of local areas.
The full paper can be accessed here: NPF Ireland 2040