Thousands of jobs in the "green economy" will not be realised unless conflict between nature conservation policies and development are resolved, the autumn conference of the Irish Planning Institute has heard.
The institute's president Gordon Daly said it was well recognised that Ireland has some of the best renewable wind energy, wave and tidal resources in the world. But he warned "more coherent" management by national and local government was required, if an economic dividend from the green economy was to be realised.
He said the key issue was managing conservation policies such as those relating to sheltered deep water and minerals, with often "competing considerations of what our planning system must continue to strive to achieve."
Mr Daly said the State's conservation body - the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) - should work with local authorities and project promoters to advance the sustainable development of areas which were very often areas of strict conservation.
He said "placing blanket restrictions" across these 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," he said.
In an address read out to the conference, Minister of State for Planning Ciarán Cuffe said an estimated over supply of a one million homes was "tangible evidence of poor judgement and misplaced forecasts".
In the speech, the Green Party Minister - who is in Luxembourg today - said future planning would concentrate on "readying up locations for the upswing" in a sustainable manner which would resolve issues of potential conflict between development and the green economy.
