Investment urgently needed in public transport and housing

The ESRI Medium-Term Review is scathing in its assessment of the Republic's city planning, especially in relation to public transport. While the review acknowledges that the widely publicised "infrastructural backlog" will be tackled by major spending in the National Development Plan, it warns: "there remains concern about the commitment to investing in building a public transport system which will meet the country's needs".

In Dublin, the review notes an on-going and rapid relocation of economic activity away from the city centre. It says the next five years may see the growth of large business centres between five and 10 kilometres from the city centre, generating major commuter traffic.

"This very rapid change in the scale of the city necessitates a much more sophisticated urban public transport system to meet the needs of the population . . . Unfortunately the authorities responsible for city planning have been very slow to recognise this change and the present transport plans have not developed sufficiently rapidly.

"While strategic planning guidelines have now been drawn up for Dublin, they do not deal with the issue of how Dublin's public transport system can be integrated to meet the needs of the population. It is not sufficient to have a series of radial rail and bus routes which do not meet up with one another in the centre. Current plans lack sufficient ambition and time is in short supply to develop and implement an appropriate programme of investment".

The review says that because our major cities, especially Dublin and Cork, are predicted to undergo a once-off, dramatic expansion in size over the next decade, the opportunity exists to influence the pattern of growth by putting in the public transport first.

However, the ESRI is less than convinced of the ability of the planners to manage such a strategic move, and is critical of the development of the cities to date, which it describes as "chaotic".

It adds that by 2010 the pattern of Irish cities "will have been cast in concrete" and it will then be too late to influence the pattern of development. Because of this, the ESRI makes a strong call for the "appropriate investment in public transport".

While the review advocates a strategy of the gradual introduction of charges for use of "scarce city road space", it argues "rather than let traffic slow down to the point where people are driven from their cars, it is better to give people the choice of paying to use their cars when they really need to do so or alternatively choosing to use an efficient, cheap and well-run public transport system."

The ESRI does not feel that CIE provides such a desirable service. It notes that "the exceptionally slow speed of change in the CIE group of companies has proved a continuing problem".

Even without the investment in measures to increase bus priority on the streets, "it is within the power of CIE to significantly improve journey times in the city centre through integrated ticketing and through the use of both bus doors for entry and exit (as in every other country in Europe)." The review says that the provision of an adequate urban public transport system was identified as only one of the necessary areas where major public investment was required. In many of the others, such as roads, "there are signs that action is being undertaken."

However, the ESRI identifies two areas of concern - the problems involved in investing in new housing and in the provision of adequate water and drainage supplies for houses.

Problems with the planning system were

much discussed; however, "solutions are difficult to find and we are some way from implementation". The review warns that "without such changes, there are going to be major constraints on future development".

IT INSTANCES the `the failure to implement a modern waste management system countrywide" as one part of the "planning sclerosis", while also being critical of the electricity service in the west of Ireland. "Unless transmission can be updated rapidly, an effective regional policy will be unimplementable", the ESRI states.

The ESRI makes the point that its previous study on investment priorities identified the provision of modern telecommunications in the less developed regions as vital to future commercial development.

"In rural areas this can only be done through radio transmission and unless the current problems in finding masts for sites are overcome, much of rural Ireland will be sentenced to exile from the developing possibilities of information technology", the review maintains.

In relation to the provision of water for new houses, the review says that while "metering and charging for water used may not have been economic in the past, it is more likely to be so now. Unless action is taken to charge for water used in the Dublin area, existing homeowners will continue to use this scarce resource wastefully". The ESRI argues that the losers will be those who are priced out of the housing market because of the constraints which the water supply will place on further development.

The review acknowledges that the Government has committed itself to spending on the railways - at least £413m will be spent to improve service and safety - but notes that the main rail lines, Dublin to Belfast and Dublin to Cork/Limerick, have received substantial investment in the past. The review concludes that these lines require less priority now. However, lines which have not been invested in, such as Sligo and Westport, and to a lesser extent Tralee, are little used and the review finds it difficult to justify investment in these cases.