A new forum is needed to oversee a necessary improvement in quality at the heart of the planning system, according to Arthur Hickey, president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI).

At the launch of the RIAI Regional Awards last week, Mr Hickey said such a forum should help to improve the quality of developments coming through the planning system. It would involve planners and architects, as well as representatives of the Department of the Environment, he suggested.

In calling for a new forum Mr Hickey is emulating a similar forum which was set up in the past. The RIAI and the Irish Planning Institute (IPI), which represents local authority planners as well as those in the private sector, established such a planning forum and made considerable progress in identifying the importance of introducing higher density developments in urban areas.

It also advised on how the quality of new developments could be improved.

"However, it is vital that the much-needed practical debate and discussion which has been going on at the forum also involves those charged with developing and implementing planning policy," said Mr Hickey.

The RIAI has now invited the Department of the Environment, the Royal Town Planning Institute, and similar organisations, to participate in the forum.

"Hopefully, it will help us provide the leadership and vision which our overstretched planning system needs. If Ireland is to have a high-quality and sustainable built environment, then we need to go beyond simply focusing on mapping zones and densities.

"Those of us involved in the planning system need to be looking not only at how proposed developments fit into a particular local area, but also how they impact on the whole of a town or county."

The RIAI hopes that by looking at planning at both micro and macro levels, good innovative design is encouraged and appreciated.

Mr Hickey also urged the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, to move forward quickly with the issue of registration of architects.