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 35 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 elected members of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly decided to make the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for the Eastern and Midland Region on the 28th June 2019, in accordance with section 24 (9) of the Planning and Development Act 2000.
Prior to the establishment of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly on 1st January 2015, the three previous Regional Authorities within Eastern and Midland Region produced individual Regional Planning Guidelines (RPG’s) which have now been replaced by the RSES.
“The objective of regional spatial and economic strategies shall be to support the implementation of the National Spatial Strategy and the economic policies and objectives of the Government by providing a long-term strategic planning and economic framework for the development of the region for which the strategies are prepared which shall be consistent with the National Spatial Strategy and the economic policies or objectives of the Government.” (sec23 Planning and Development Act 2000)
The Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, has twelve constituent local authorities split into three Strategic Planning Areas (see map) as follows –
Dublin | Fingal, Dublin City, South Dublin, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown |
Eastern | Louth, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow |
Midlands | Longford, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath |
Note: Louth is located in the Border NUTS III area but is now moving to the Eastern and Midland assembly region from the former BMW region.