45126-Invest. Qual-No111

Investment in QualityMeanwhile, debate is ongoing as to the means by which publictransport can best be regulated and the Department of Transport hasrecently published a consultation paper on the regulation of busservices outside the Greater Dublin Area. Combined with this hasbeen reform to improve service delivery in a number of other areassuch as taxis, pharmacies, the Commission on Liquor Licencing andother studies of professions as identified in the OECD review ofRegulatory Reform and undertaken by the Competition Authority.The Council has emphasised above the important strategic role thatpublic institutions must play in ensuring the delivery of sufficientinfrastructure, and that it is not always possible or desirable to leavesuch decisions to the market. In deriving an infrastructuralprogramme, it is important that independent decision makers, bethey regulators or state-owned enterprises, take into account overallsocial and governmental objectives. As discussed in Section 9.1above, any new institutional arrangements for the regulation ofutilities must meet a number of goals: customer needs, real orvirtual competition, social obligations, long-term investment andaccountability.Running in parallel with the debate on the role and effectiveness ofindependent sectoral regulation is the issue of the appropriatebalance between local, regional and national decision makers ininfrastructural and spatial planning and provision. While theCouncil is in favour of more devolution to the local level in manypolicy areas, infrastructure and spatial planning is a national issueand therefore requires national co-ordination. A major challenge isto devise institutional arrangements which combine nationalstrategy with regional co-ordination and local devolution.9.11.1 Institutional Reform: The Spatial DimensionIreland has a fragmented set of institutions in the spatial dimensioncombined with a set of unclear and underdeveloped linkagesbetween them. In addition to national policy set by centralgovernment, there are regional assemblies, regional authorities,County Development Boards, local authorities as well as specificagencies that transcend local authority boundaries such as Údáras512