The Regional Assemblies and the Eastern and Midland Region
The Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly (EMRA) is part of regional governance in Ireland, established under local government reform in January 2015. Our Regional Assembly covers the administrative areas of twelve local authorities– Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Louth, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councils and Dublin City Council. There are also sub-regional planning functions through three Strategic Planning Areas (SPA) namely the Midland, Eastern and Dublin SPAs.
Sub regional profiles were prepared for each of the 3 Strategic Planning Areas (SPAs), see here:Dublin SPA Profile Eastern SPA Profile Midland SPA Profile |
Spatial Planning Hierarchy in Ireland
The 38 elected members of the Regional Assembly are predominantly nominated by their local authorities to represent the region. One of their key tasks is to prepare a new Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) to replace the existing Regional Planning Guidelines (RPGs) with additional functions requiring an economic strategy to be combined with the spatial strategy.
The RSES will support the implementation of national government policies such as the emerging National Planning Framework (NPF) and will also set the framework for local economic development and spatial planning in each of the 12 local authorities in the region.
The process for making the new Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy has now begun with the publication of the Issues Paper to inform the initial consultation period.
