The Minister for Housing and Planning has launched two new
initiatives to enhance co-ordination and oversight of the planning
system.
The first of these is www.myplan.ie, a free planning information
system for the public on the details of all of the 400+ development
plans and local area plans across the country.
The second is the report of the Regional Authorities (Border,
Dublin, Mid-East, Midland, Mid-West, South-East, South-West and
West) on the implementation of 2010 Regional Planning Guidelines
(RPGs), a copy of which is available to download here.
Regional Authorities now have an important role within the process
of preparing and varying local authority Development Plans and
ensuring proper oversight of the alignment of the Plans at
national, regional and local levels through the incorporation of
new Core Strategies and relevant objectives from the RPGs into the
local Development Plans. The report indicates that the
Regional Authorities will, over the coming months, adopt the
following priorities in respect of the implementation of the RPGs,
namely
(1) respond to any changes in governance that will be required by
the implementation of Government policy regarding regional and
local government reform;
(2) develop greater institutional buy-in from the key agencies such
as IDA Ireland and relevant Government Departments;
(3) Identify key infrastructure investments that are required for
the achievement of Government objectives and facilitate the
implementation of these investments;
(4) review the RPGs in the light of emerging Government decisions
regarding infrastructure; investments and consider whether changes
in policies or priorities are required to respond to such
decisions
(5) establish and commence the measurement of a robust set of
indicators of achievement both regionally and nationally;
(6) complete the review of Development Plans to ensure consistency
with the RPGs;
(7) continue to respond to policy and project proposals as required
in the context of the RPGs; and
(8) review the implications of Census 2011 results for the current
RPGs and evaluate the implications for future spatial and
development planning in line with future NSS & NDP
policies.
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