Alan Kelly: Great hope of planning framework detoured to Dublin

The National Planning Framework focuses on Dublin to the detriment of the regions. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, says the ex-minister who initiated it, Alan Kelly.

It’s fair to say that, instead of giving us a satellite view of what a new and well-planned Ireland would look like, the recently published National Planning Framework (NFP) draft has collapsed like a punctured balloon.

It gives me personally no satisfaction to say this, not least being the then minister who initiated the process, but the much-anticipated NPF is a bit like those Halloween pumpkins we all lit last Tuesday week; looks good on approach but pretty much empty inside.