'Green' jobs hinge on resolving conflicts

THOUSANDS OF jobs in the “green economy” will not materialise unless hostility that arises between nature conservation policies and development is resolved, the autumn conference of the Irish Planning Institute was told yesterday.

The forum, which was attended by a large number of local authority planners, also heard that “poor judgment and misplaced forecasts” by local authorities had resulted in land being zoned for up to one million additional new homes across the State.

Addressing Government hopes for a jobs dividend from the green economy, institute president Gordon Daly said “more coherent” management by national and local government was required.

Mr Daly said it was well recognised that Ireland had some of the best renewable wind, wave and tidal energy resources in the world.

But he said such projects were often proposed for locations where EU directives on nature conservation were already in place. The challenge would be to balance the often “competing considerations” of planning for sustainable jobs and nature conservation.

Mr Daly said the State’s conservation body – the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) – should work with local authorities and project promoters to achieve this balance.

He added that “placing blanket restrictions” across conservation areas was not the way forward. “If resources are the issues then the NPWS must be provided with these, as delivering on the green/smart economy is arguably heavily dependent on doing so. It will pay for itself many times over. If necessary we must also look to other European countries to see how the practical implementation of this legislation is taking place.”

Minister of State for Local Government Ciarán Cuffe told the conference an estimated overzoning, sufficient for one million homes, was “tangible evidence of poor judgment and misplaced forecasts”.

He said in acknowledging “individual and collective failures” planners and Government needed to put “necessary safeguards” in place to ensure a more sustainable future.

“We mustn’t lose sight of the opportunities that we now have to reshape and reform development planning and management systems and to establish a more evidence-based and coherent approach to planning,” he said.

The Green Party Minister said future planning would concentrate on “readying-up locations for the upswing”.

This would be planned in a sustainable manner which would resolve issues of potential conflict between development and the green economy.

Niall Cussen, a senior planning adviser with the Department of the Environment, said there were more than 400 development and local area plans across the State, all of which were drawn up separately and were “individual” in their nature.

He said the new requirement for a “core strategy” in local authority development plans was an attempt to bring a “clear and concise, evidence based approach” to planning.