2.3 | National Strategic

2.3 | National Strategic Outcomes

The National Strategic Outcomes are a single vision and shared set of goals for every community in Ireland (Figure 2). In some cases, transport’s role is explicit, such as delivering sustainable mobility, while in others transport has a facilitating role, such as access to high-quality childcare, education and health services.

It is not possible to definitively list all of Ireland’s transport needs over the next two decades, nor is it the purpose of NIFTI to identify specific transport interventions. However, the framework ensures that future investment aligns with the National Strategic Outcomes and thereby delivers

Future investment in transport should meet one or more of the National Strategic Outcomes. To take some examples from the revised NDP, the development of BusConnects and comprehensive cycle networks in each of the five cities meets the

National Investment Framework for Transport in Ireland | The Purpose of NIFTI

fourth NSO, sustainable mobility, and also strongly supports compact growth and transitioning to a low carbon society. By contrast, a nonurban project such as the development of the link between Cork and Limerick will enhance regional accessibility in the south and southwest of the country. There may be occasions when a certain type of investment performs strongly against one NSO but negatively against another. Where these considerations arise, they will be balanced through the strategic assessment stage in the project lifecycle, discussed in greater detail in Section 5.

a low-carbon, economically competitive and environmentally sustainable economy by 2050. As the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland, the transport sector has a key role to play in achieving these objectives.

Building on the substantial investment in sustainable mobility set out in the revised National Development Plan 2021-2030, the 2021 Climate Action Plan sets out additional measures to help Ireland achieve a 51% reduction in emissions from the transport sector by 2030 compared to current levels and delivering an additional 500,000 daily journeys by walking, cycling and public transport. These measures will be reflected in, and complemented by, actions to be included in the forthcoming Sustainable Mobility Policy, which will establish the sectoral policy framework for active travel and public transport.

While transport investment can be an enabler of the NPF, it must be noted that good transport investment is contingent on policy elsewhere too. While transport is a key component of delivering compact growth, effective land use policy is necessary to reduce the need to travel and deliver the population densities required for viable public transport services.

The Climate Action Plan also commits to increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road to 945,000 by 2030. To achieve this level of electric vehicle penetration, it is vital to address potential barriers to uptake such as range anxiety, which is a driver’s fear that an electric vehicle will have insufficient energy to complete a given journey. To address this issue, the Climate Action Plan commits to the development of a national infrastructure strategy to support the development of the national charging network, particularly in non-urban areas.

Decisions taken in other sectors can also impact on the demands placed on the transport system. For example, the development of communications technology infrastructure can mitigate the need for travel in certain circumstances, while the construction of key public services such as schools and hospitals will create demand for trips and pressures on the network locally. Ideally, new development will optimise the use of existing transport assets rather than require the construction of new infrastructure.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will mean different things on different parts of the network. Within our cities and large towns, NIFTI will support investment in public transport, walking and cycling to encourage modal shift away from the private car. Demand management will also have a role in encouraging this shift. The deployment of demand management measures in our large urban centres is given significant consideration in the recently published Five Cities Demand Management Study. Further analysis will also be required to identify how measures identified in this study can be applied in different regions and locations across the country. Advancing research in this area will be important in supporting the delivery of the Climate Action Plan and the forthcoming Sustainable Mobility Policy Framework.

The following sections set out in more detail the types of outcomes that transport can deliver or enable in support of the NPF across a range of considerations.