An Taisce’s submission to An Bord Pleanala on Intel is carefully framed to make recommendations to aid the achievement a better development through improved conditions. This includes addressing the important environmental issues of construction waste beside the Rye Water; a tributary of the River Liffey and the adequacy of sewerage treatment capacity.

The most important issue raised is the need to avoid the risk of flooding to Leixlip. as the current conditions attached to the development do not properly protect the flood-plain of the Eye Water which flows into the river Liffey just beyond the site. An Taisce has recommended conditions by which the impact of construction activity including dumping of waste and spoil material along the Rye could be reduced to avoid contributing to flood risk. 

The second major concern is to ensure that the proposal is linked to the upgrading of the capacity of the waste water treatment works at Leixlip which is in the interest of everybody in the area.

An Taisce has also made recommendations for improved traffic management to reduce the impact of heavy vehicles on the Leixlip area and meet the standards set out by the Dublin Transport Office in its 2000-16 strategy for the greater Dublin Area to bring traffic congestion back to 1991 levels.

The knock-on impact of major industrial and housing development affects us all and issues such as traffic, services and amenities must be faced up to. Too many planning permissions are being granted for major developments without proper provision of accessible public transport and other services. This is going to cause socially and economically damaging congestion which destroys our quality of life and has major long term costs.

Existing transport plans for the Greater Dublin Area drawn up by the Dublin Transport Office (DTO) in “Platform for Change” 2000-2016 appearc to have been abandoned. The key objective of this strategy for 2000-2016 is to “reduce the number of car trips and bring congestion back to 1997 levels”. A key requirement in this is to ensure that new development both commercial and residential is public transport accessible and that large employers promote car pooling and reduce car spaces. Local Authorities are not addressing this issue and in the case of the Intel application, Kildare County Council failed to refer the application to the Dublin Transportation Office which would have ensured a second opinion and is one of the major issues raised in the appeal.

The recent announcement by the Minister for Transport that a Dublin Transport Authority will be established is most welcome to advance better transport co-ordination. It is also critical that all IDA led investments are fully in compliance with the National Spatial Strategy to ensure that host areas receive the maximum benefits.