A great plan… if it is implemented in full

IRELAND has a bad history in planning for the future – for evidence, you have only to look to the likes of the M50, which cost more to put right than the initial construction cost, and the Luas lines that were finally linked 13 years after they opened.

Foresight and the vision to implement it are hugely important. For that reason, and despite aspirations in many cases presented with little actual detail, we broadly welcome the National Development Plan and National Planning Framework announced yesterday.

We know that the population of Ireland is expected to increase by one million people by 2030. Where and how they live, how they travel and where they work must be managed without further contribution to urban sprawl and, especially, by also ensuring that Dublin and the eastern region do not continue to disproportionately prosper at the expense of the rest of the country.

The plan is underpinned by ten key principles, which might be five too many. It remains to be seen if, for instance, the aspiration for massive redevelopment of rundown urban areas and the building of 500,000 new homes is compatible with climate change or enhanced amenity goals, but these are arguments for another day.

The plan is to grow the populations of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford by 50%. Athlone and Sligo have been designated for further economic activity. The long-touted Metro North rail service to the airport will now extend south to Sandyford, and the Dart will be extended to Drogheda and Maynooth.

Especially welcome is the news that €1billion is to be spent on the regeneration of rural towns and villages.

Many of these proposals are not new. Dressing them up is what governments do, but to see them all laid out in a cohesive framework is very welcome.

The concentration on green and renewable energy is a major commitment, and planning decisions will have to take account of the sustainable level of development.

Most significant of all, though, is the plan that Dublin’s increasing population, and that of the other four key cities, will be housed largely within the central core of those cities. The redevelopment of the capital’s docklands shows the way forward, and if more rundown urban areas can be replaced with sparkling apartments and amenities, that can only be a good thing. That’s why we also welcome the fact that the ludicrous height cap on new developments will be revisited. Citizens of every major city in the world live in high-rise apartments, and it is time we too realised that housing people close to where the jobs are makes a huge amount of sense. Any day without a two-hour commute is better for parents and better for families.

Yes, we would like to see more detail, and it surely will be forthcoming.

For now, though, what we have seen shows admirable joined-up thinking. The sooner work starts on implementing the plan, the better.