Collaborative Approach and Alignment with Wider Policy

Achieving the objectives of the SMP depends on strong collaboration across government, agencies, and local authorities. The SMP embedded the principles of sustainable mobility into land use and spatial planning. Through close collaboration with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, this approach was reinforced by the establishment of the Housing Activation Office within that department, which includes transport specialists in its multi-disciplinary team and will support compact growth to reduce travel demand. The SMP Action Plan 2026-2030 expands this collaborative approach, working with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to consider the transport needs of third level students, the Department of Finance in respect of the Cycle to Work scheme, and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment on various work programmes of common interest.

The first SMP Action Plan included a commitment to establish an annual National Sustainable Mobility Forum to strengthen collaboration with transport stakeholders. In May 2025, with a focus on developing this new Plan, the third annual Forum brought together over 160 representatives from local authorities, transport agencies, Disabled People’s Representative Organisations, government departments, public participation networks, youth groups, academics and community groups. Through a hybrid format of in-person and online sessions to facilitate a diverse range of perspectives, participants considered key themes such as transportoriented development, decarbonising urban networks, inclusive active travel infrastructure, public transport access, shared mobility, and data integration. Their insights have been incorporated into the development of this new Plan, which will transform investment into delivery over the period 2026 to 2030.

The SMP was designed to align with many national and international policies. In addition to those set out in the Policy, the objectives of more recent strategies and policies, as well as commitments in the Programme for Government 2025, are reflected in this new Action Plan. Those of particular relevance include:

to the development of Active Travel and Greenway infrastructure over the same period. These commitments are incorporated as actions with defined outputs in this Action Plan, and progress on their implementation will be tracked through annual SMP Progress Reports.

The first revision of the National Planning Framework reaffirms the critical importance of taking an integrated approach to land use and transport. The Framework seeks to enable Transport Orientated Development (TOD) at scale at suitable locations, served by highcapacity public transport. This closely aligns with SMP Goal 9: Better integrate land use and transport planning at all levels.

The National Development Plan Review 2025 and associated Sectoral Investment Plan for Transport commits to approximately €12.1 billion in public transport capital investment funding from 2026-2030, to advance projects including MetroLink, DART+, BusConnects, and the Cork Area Commuter Rail Programme. €360 million is also allocated per annum