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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Vol. 1023 No. 1

Transport, Accelerating Sustainable Mobility: Statements

I appreciate the chance to give these statements on our national sustainable mobility policy and to listen to Deputies. I will not be here for the entire debate. There is a Cabinet meeting at the same time, which is unfortunate, but I look forward to reading the record and hearing what Members have to say on how we use this moment in time to deliver a seismic change in the nature, characteristics and environmental aspects of our transport system. The switch to this new sustainable mobility mode will be key to this. The national sustainable mobility policy, published last month, sets out the approach we need to take. I will give some examples of what is happening and talk about some of the structures we need to put in place.

I will start with the imperative for doing this. It is an imperative driven first and foremost by our climate targets. We have to halve our emissions in this decade and we expect transport to have to provide a reduction close to the average we want to see across the economy. That will not be easy. It will be incredibly challenging because many of the patterns that have been put in place are there because for five decades or more, we followed a transport policy that was about promoting private car use, which saw ever-longer commuting distances and ever-longer amounts of time spent commuting. The last census showed approximately 200,000 of our citizens commute for more than an hour each way every day. Of those, approximately 80,000 have children under 15 and about 45,000 of them have children who are in their preschool years. This means there are millions of hours when people are not spending time with their families, and when there is major frustration with the traffic gridlock caused by this system that has been created, not to mention the emissions that come from it.

This system has also promoted an ever-lengthening sprawl, especially from our cities. If we look at the census populations for distance travelled for work, we see this doughnut pattern around each of our five cities, in particular, where people moved out and commuted ever-longer distances. As I said, it did not work in climate terms and it did not work in the time wasted by people they could have otherwise spent in a range of other much more preferable activities. It was also very expensive in resource terms and having to provide the infrastructure for it.

We now need to change and change everything. There are four legs to the stool on which we will build a new transport system. These relate to switching, including switching away from the use of fossil fuels, which we know we have to do, towards using electricity, biofuels, hydrogen and other transport fuels that will meet our needs. We need to make a modal shift away from overdependence on the private car. We need to start with our younger people, where there has been a remarkable change in the past 30 to 40 years. We have gone from a country where the vast majority of young children took the bus, walked or cycled to school, to the current environment where the vast majority are driven to school. Indeed, one of the statistics that jumps out, for example, is more secondary school girls drive themselves to school than cycle to school. How did we create such an environment? We need to change it. We need that modal shift back to active travel, walking, cycling and taking the bus and train.

We need to shorten the overall amount of travel. We need to implement the national planning framework, which references not just decarbonising but supporting more compact development and better balanced regional development so everything is not built on the east coast and there is not ever-increasing growth in the numbers travelling in Dublin. That is not just bad for the rest of the country. In the end, it is bad for Dublin because it will not be able to cope with the volume of traffic coming in and out of it.

The fourth S in this switch, shift and shorten approach to sustainable mobility has to be towards sharing. There is a significant opportunity for us to develop sharing transport modes, recognising that most cars spend almost 92% of the day parked and not being used. A sharing mode, in this time of a cost-of-living crisis, is an obvious way we can reduce the economic burden on our householders, while still providing the mobility they need without them necessarily being obliged to own every car, in addition to being flexible in how they share services to deliver that mobility.

I will give some examples of what is happening in government and what we are delivering on in four key aspects, in particular, active travel because promoting it is the most important strategic development we seek to achieve. I will outline what is happening in bus transport, how we do demand management to help us make this more sustainable shift, and some of the governance structures we are setting up in the Government to achieve this leap to halving our climate emissions, reducing the amount of travel we have to do and seeing a shift and a switch in the fuels we use.

Recent developments in active travel are significant. A walking and cycling index was published two weeks ago, for which a very detailed survey was done of Irish householders, some 71% of whom, as citizens, said they wanted to see more investment in cycling and walking infrastructure, such as greenways, cycle tracks and better footpaths. That is one of the reasons the Government has committed to provide more than €360 million a year for them in its programme for Government, as well as in reality.

We followed the OECD recommendation of spending 20% of the transport capital budget on active travel, so we are following best international advice. We are starting to see it pay dividends. The Clontarf cycleway, which is being built at the moment, shows a new level of priority for cyclists and pedestrians as well as buses. This is what we need to do. MacCurtain Street in Cork is an example of how a busy city centre street can be changed. That will happen this year. We need to do the same for O'Connell Street in Limerick city. These are just examples of projects that are starting to be delivered. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know that the incredibly narrow Salmon Weir Bridge is a pinch point between the city, the university and the hospital. We are starting to provide new facilities there. This is only the start of what we need to do. Another example of what is happening on the ground is the extension of the greenway in Waterford from Bilberry into the city.

Projects are not just happening in our cities. Some 1,200 walking and cycling projects are being undertaken by local authorities across the country. One I am looking forward to is the new bridge across the Shannon in Athlone as part of the greenway from Dublin to Galway. The bridge will transform the stunning and beautiful urban space on the western side of the Shannon in Athlone town. It will open that area up, provide for significant rejuvenation and create a public place, while also providing active travel infrastructure. Other projects include the Hanover residential and cycling scheme in Carlow and the N63 cycling and pedestrian scheme in Longford. I could go on. People around the country know that we are only starting – we still have a great deal to learn – to roll out these projects, which will be critical in transforming how we view walking and cycling in our cities and will reverse the pattern that has developed over the past 40 years. When I went to school, the majority of people walked, cycled or took the bus. Today, the vast majority are driven there. We can turn that around. There are 170 schools involved in the first green school projects to improve facilities and infrastructure.

I will speak to governance later, but at this critical point, as we come out of Covid and when patterns are still flexible and changing, we need to go further and provide spaces across the country that make our villages, towns, countryside and cities safe, accessible and pleasant places to walk and cycle. The benefits of this lie not just in the climate, but in a much more efficient transport system and a healthier population. The health benefits of active travel are beyond compare.

This is also a social justice project. When I was a councillor in Dublin city, almost half of all households did not own a car - many of them could not afford one - but they suffered the worst noise and air pollution and congestion problems because of a traffic system that did not serve them. We were not providing for households that did not have a car. What were we doing? We are now providing for them. It is a more economical, healthier, cleaner, safer and much better system.

We need to do the same for bus infrastructure as we are for active travel projects. We are doing so. Last week, the third of the BusConnects routes in Dublin was launched. It is going before An Bord Pleanála. Routes are starting to be put in on the Howth, Lucan and other corridors. We are starting to reform the whole route network as well as street formation to give further priority to buses.

This is not just happening in Dublin. Last month, the sustainable transport corridors report on Cork was published by the National Transport Authority, NTA, and Cork city and county councils. It will go back for public consultation in the coming months. I believe 12 corridors are being planned there. There will be a combination of cycling and walking in Cork, with 54 km more of walking and cycling routes as well as 75 km in new bus routes. The same is happening in Galway. It is critical that we develop high-quality bus corridors there, with the prospect of shaping the city around public transport rather than around roads, which I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will welcome. We could then examine the retrofitting of those bus corridors with light rail.

This is the step change that we can make, but it starts with giving priority to bus services in Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Cork and Dublin. It is happening, but it needs to be accelerated, which I will address in my closing comments regarding the governance system.

The BusConnects networks in our cities are important, but the most important bus project is probably Connecting Ireland, through which we are trying to establish new rural bus transport routes. If we deliver on this scheme, approximately 100 towns and villages will see frequent and proper public bus services for the first time. We started last year with some experimental schemes in Dingle and Leitrim. Now, we are starting to expand it. We will expand it first to the Ukrainian people who have come to our country in order to give them access to public transport services, for example, in north Clare. However, this is a five-year project. Each year, new and clever loop services will be rolled out that connect to train stations and other transport infrastructure, so that synergy is created and every part of the country can start to see public transport as part of its transport system.

This project will be key and we will have to deliver it in a time of change when the patterns that were in place before Covid are unlikely to return. This will require us to consider whether all of our buses are in the right locations, whether we need the level of commuting services that were provided previously, whether we need to match the new transport patterns that will develop with people working remotely and whether we need new town services, for example, those that we introduced recently in Kilkenny, Athlone and elsewhere. This is the type of review of our public transport system that needs to be done to help adjust to the changing patterns as we come out of Covid.

Something else that the Government has done as regards our bus system is provide a 20% reduction in all public transport fares to the end of the year as a way of encouraging people back onto public transport as we come out of Covid. For under-24s, we have provided a 50% reduction in fares to ensure that the pattern is set early in life. We will have to continue reviewing, monitoring and measuring how the public transport system is being used in this new post-Covid, heading-towards-decarbonised world to ensure that it fits patterns of transport that are changing radically from what they were previously.

Besides active travel and bus travel, a third aspect is demand management. Public transport fare changes will help us to switch away from private car ownership. It is not that private car owners are wrong or bad people. Rather, it does not work mathematically. It is expensive and creates congestion, which ends up costing everyone and creating high emissions.

As well as lower fares, we are examining the five cities demand management study, which was published this year and will play a critical part in the changes we need to make. We need to reallocate space to support more sustainable transport solutions. We need to examine our car parking patterns to see whether they are promoting sustainable urban and rural design systems or whether we need to regulate some car parking systems so that the space can be used to create better local environments and streetscapes and support retailers without having everyone drive to every shopfront before driving off and leaving our streets less attractive, less safe, less efficient and less effective as an urban public realm.

Turning to governance, we have the right plans in place to deliver this switch. We have the national development plan, which commits €35 billion to transport over the next eight years. We have the climate action plan, which is strong and legally effective in steering in the direction of a more sustainable low-carbon system.

We have the national planning framework and the national sustainable mobility policy. In its remaining two and three quarter years in office, this Government is committed to focusing on delivery and making sure we bring real, efficient, effective and quick change about because we have to be fast before transport patterns are set again as we come out of the Covid period.

It is also critical that in the next three years we meet our carbon budget for 2025, which will probably be one of the most difficult things to do in transport. We have established a leadership group within the Government and a delivery team beneath it that involves various Departments and Government agencies like the NTA and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, bringing in outside expertise and new thinking and sharing it through our national climate dialogue so that stakeholders across the country can recommend ideas, see what is happening and understand what is in the programme. Those leadership groups also include the regional authorities and the County and City Management Association. Critically, we will go to each local authority and ask it to put forward some pathfinder projects, as we are calling them, that can be delivered in the next three years and that might be done super-fast. I will use the example of Robert Burns in Dún Laoghaire and some of the coastal cycle routes that were developed using low-cost solutions and by working with communities to get agreement on what is difficult. As we all know, space reallocation to support cycling, walking or bus transport is not easy but that is what we have to do. We must use this opportunity with the space that was previously used for mass commuting, which will not return. If we do not do so, we will fail both to meet our climate targets for the next three years and to move the entire country in a more sustainable direction.

I hope that in each city and county, local authority managers will join in this process, which has to be from the bottom up. It cannot be directed from the top down because it has to be wanted. The type of project we might look at in, for example, Limerick would involve the three universities joining together in the context of the development of a bus, cycle and walking network that would transform the city centre, bring life back into it and connect those universities. This could be done at a relatively low cost. We could also reopen the Foynes train line. One of the Deputies suggested to the Tánaiste last week that the latter could be done quickly as a way to encourage people to move away from driving to industrial estates and getting stuck. We could go from a system that is not working to fast-tracking the rail solution there to serve our industrial sites better and to provide access to Adare in time for the Ryder Cup. We want to deliver those sort of accelerated projects.

I mention Galway city and what we should do there to turn matters around. I hate to say this, and I have discussed it with the Leas-Cheann Comhairle before, but Galway probably has the least effective transport system of our five major cities. What could we do in three years or what targets could we set ourselves? I visited Galway the week before last and asked the local authority and the local chamber of commerce to come back with proposals for BusConnects, cycling and greenway projects that we could deliver in the next three years.

I will be accused of not being fair if I let the Minister go on.

I will finish on the following point: we want the councils of the country to come to this leadership group with proposals for these pathfinder projects that we could deliver quickly and at low cost as part of this sustainable mobility revolution.

These statements have been flagged since last week after the meeting of the Business Committee and the working title was "Statements on Transport" up until 6.30 p.m. yesterday. It was only at 12.20 p.m. today that the title was changed to "Statements on Transport, Accelerating Sustainable Mobility". I do not have a lot to say on accelerating sustainable mobility, but I have a lot to say on the topic in general. I find it incredible that the Minister would spend 20 minutes contributing to a debate on transport and not mention what happened at Dublin Airport.

This debate is on sustainable mobility.

Regardless of that, the Minister has responsibility for transport and he is accused of being missing in action, of not supporting the aviation industry-----

-----and of being out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people.

If anybody looked at a recording of the past 20 minutes of the debate, they would point to that.

I was asked to discuss and debate sustainable mobility and how we accelerate it. It would not have been right for me to ignore that. The issue the Deputy raises is important and also needs to be debated.

This is the Minister's first time in the Dáil Chamber since the incidents of the weekend. He is the Minister for Transport. The people of Ireland are looking to the Minister and his Department for leadership on this matter. The Minister can take it or leave it, but my opinion is that to neglect that, not reference it and not provide confidence and comfort to people who either went through the experience of Dublin Airport at the weekend or who will be travelling next weekend or further into the future, is incredible.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the matter of transport. While there are many areas I could focus on, the events of the weekend put one matter ahead of all others. As an island nation, air connectivity is vital for family, social, tourism and business purposes. The aviation sector has endured two difficult years during the pandemic with many workers losing their jobs and thousands of others suffering severe pay cuts. A rapid return to normality was hoped for and thankfully that is now materialising. Unfortunately, our main State airport failed to read the signs of recovery over the past year and was completely ill-prepared for the long-awaited rebound.

During the pandemic, the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, slashed employee numbers. It cut 1,000 staff. That was completely excessive, short-sighted and highlighted a total disregard for workers. It was also incredibly ill-judged for an authority with responsibility in the aviation sector. The DAA is now scrambling to refill these jobs, which should not have been abolished in the first place. In short, abolishing them was a penny-wise-and-pound-foolish approach. If the DAA had talked to a sinner soul on this island during the pandemic, it would have known that people were chomping at the bit to get back to travel. In addition, Ireland is home to Ryanair, one of the most successful and aggressive airlines on the planet. As a result, the airport should have been better prepared for a more rapid aviation recovery compared with other airports. If aviation was going to recover anywhere, it was going to recover in Ireland. Instead, the DAA was caught on the hop and passengers have paid the price.

Dublin Airport management is simply not performing, and that is not just when it comes to unacceptable security wait times. Complaints have been made about the uncleanliness of the airport, long queues for food and beverage outlets in the terminals, more delays for baggage pick-up and the struggle to get taxis. We even saw an ugly brawl in the terminal recently. The Garda response to the incident was slow, despite the opening of a brand-new Garda station in the airport this month. It all adds up to an unpleasant experience for passengers, with many dreading the thought of using the airport to go to and from Ireland.

It is having an incredibly negative impact on our international reputation. We spend millions each year marketing Ireland as a great tourist destination but coverage of this travel chaos on the BBC, in The New York Times and on Australian news has the potential to put tourists off. Cost-cutting by management and neglect by Government Ministers has resulted in a significant drop in the quality of the service being offered at Dublin Airport, and that is not good enough. Is the Minister for Transport happy to stand idly by and allow these problems to continue or has he any intention of acting? Throughout the pandemic I raised the need for support for the aviation sector so that it could be ready for this rebound. Airports and airlines used the pandemic as an opportunity to cut staff numbers beyond what was justified. They targeted the longest-serving, most experienced and best-paid staff.

I raised the issue of security delays with the Minister at the start of April when the problem arose ahead of the Easter break. I asked him what action he was taking to address this problem. The Minister said he was monitoring the situation and was arranging meetings with the management of the airport. The same response came yesterday when yet another meeting took place with management. The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, have stated that they will now hold daily meetings with management about this problem.

Meetings are all we have had. That is it. What have these meetings achieved to date and what is discussed at them? By the look of things, it is not solutions.

The Government has a really important role to play in this matter. We are talking about the busiest State airport in the country, with 85% of all air traffic going through it. There are solutions the Government can push to help to fix this issue. First, excellent pay and working conditions are central to resolving it. There have been reports about low pay, long shifts and issues with workers getting paid their overtime. Good pay and conditions will help to attract and retain security staff in our airports. In the short term, extra personnel clearly need to be drafted into Dublin Airport, whether from other airports or, for example, by utilising Army personnel. Everything needs to be on the table. We also need to see a fast-tracking of recruitment and training for new staff.

In the medium term, as well as investment in workers, we need to see investment in new security screening equipment. Last year, Shannon Airport invested in upgrading its security machines, which removes the need to take liquids and laptops out of bags. This has the potential to speed things up significantly. In the longer term, we need a plan to rebalance some of the Dublin Airport traffic to other airports, including Cork, Shannon and Ireland West Airport Knock. As I said, 85% of traffic currently goes through Dublin.

The Minister for Transport cannot wash his hands of this problem. All Ministers needs to step up and take responsibility. They cannot just turn up at the airport when a ribbon needs cutting. When the pressure is on, they need to stand up and be counted.

Over the weekend, we witnessed shocking sights at Dublin Airport arising from issues with capacity. There was chaos, with more than 1,000 people missing flights, many of them unable to depart for holidays they had waited three years to go on and others delayed in visiting family or leaving for work opportunities. Some of those people will not get the time off work at a later date to take another holiday. For many of them, this was their one opportunity.

Despite the Government support it received during the Covid crisis, through the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, the DAA laid off 1,000 staff in order to reduce any losses during the pandemic. The company saw an opportunity to get rid of workers who had the best terms and conditions and who were the longest working there. This was about profit and greed. That is why we ended up where we did at the weekend. The DAA tried to maximise its profits on the backs of its workers, and the people of Ireland paid for that this weekend. We made a show of ourselves. In fact, the DAA made a show of the country. Nowhere else would such a company's management be allowed to behave as the DAA's did. In so doing, it made a joke of us as a nation. For the Minister to come in here to today and indicate the company will be let away with it, instead of standing up and giving a stinging criticism of it, is unbelievable.

There is another perspective to consider, which relates to my constituency of Cork North-Central. If I walk into Dublin Airport today, I will see there are 178 flights to 88 separate destinations. If I go into Cork Airport, however, there are only 26 flights to 11 destinations. The Government has talked about balanced regional development and putting Cork forward as an alternative to Dublin for proper regional development. The Minister and other Ministers have said they care about regional airports. However, the facts are the facts. They have not delivered and they do not care about regional airports. The DAA and the Government care about only one thing, which is jamming every passenger into Dublin Airport. We need to think outside the box now. We have regional airports that are crying out of support. Will the Minister finally deliver that support, work towards balanced development and ensure what we saw at the weekend will never happen again?

I raise a long-running issue in my constituency of Louth, which includes parts of east Meath. I refer to the need to extend the short hop zone to Laytown and Drogheda. I have raised this issue on many occasions with the NTA at meetings I requested, at committee meetings and in representations to the authority. To be honest, I have been met with a brick wall. This is a pity because the extension really is a no-brainer.

A monthly rail ticket to Dublin from Laytown costs €237. A monthly ticket from Balbriggan to Dublin costs €154. Laytown is the next stop after Balbriggan and the rail distance between the two stations is a mere 9 km. The villages of east Meath, including Laytown, Bettystown and Donacarney, as well as Drogheda, have experienced a major expansion in their populations over the past decade or so. A huge percentage of those people commute to Dublin every day. There is a major burden on them, which they have been talking about for years. Clearly, the NTA is not listening, which is why I am raising the issue with the Minister today.

There is a total inequity in price fare structures, which penalises people using Drogheda and Laytown stations. Commuters are resorting to driving their cars to Balbriggan to avail of the short hop zone fares. From an environmental point of view, this is absolutely bonkers, as I am sure the Minister will agree. He is leader of the Green Party and Minister for Transport. He is aware of this issue. His policies are encouraging people to drive part of the way to work because they cannot afford public transport. These are the policies he is putting forward and that people must live with, day in and day out. These are the policies coming from a Green Party Minister for Transport.

Witnesses from the NTA made it clear to the transport committee several weeks ago that they are not even looking at fare reductions. We have seen of late that the Minister can reduce fares with the stroke of a pen. People in Laytown and the whole east Meath area, along with Drogheda, have been asking for more than a decade for an extension of the short hop zone to include them. As a basic principle, public transport should be affordable and accessible. Given the NTA's reluctance to ensure this is the case, it is clear the Government is the only entity that is able to do it. There is an environmental and economic case to reduce the fares. It is up to the Minister now to act. He gave a fine opening statement in which he talked about super-fast and sustainable travel and encouraging people to use public transport. As I was listening, I was waiting for him to acknowledge the situation I am raising and to tell me he is going to address it straight away, because it is bonkers. The policies that are in place under his watch are giving people no option other than to drive part of their journey to work in order to avail of the short hop zone fare up the road.

Will the Minister continue talking the talk or is he going to walk the walk? Will he give a commitment to take action, particularly in view of all the reasons I have outlined and given that it is a no-brainer from an economic and environmental point of view? Will he listen and will he act? He talked about speedy action. Is he going to address this issue or will he, like the NTA, turn a blind eye to it? Will he extend the short hop zone? People want to travel by train. The Minister is talking about encouraging the use of public transport seven days a week. Will he make it more affordable and accessible for the people I am talking about to do precisely that by extending the short hop zone, or is he just going to ignore the issue? Which will it be?

The Government has pulled an absolute stroke with these statements. It is deeply unfair that the information only went out to the parliamentary inbox at 12.20 p.m. that the discussion would focus on sustainable mobility. The Minister said he was asked to speak on that particular issue. Who asked him to do so? I am on the Business Committee and I know nobody on the Opposition side asked for statements on sustainable transport. Did the Taoiseach or the Chief Whip ask the Minister to focus on that aspect? It is incredible, after the weekend just gone, that he did not demand that these statements be used to discuss what happened at Dublin Airport.

Had that been suggested, I would have been quite happy to agree to it. I came into the Chamber on the understanding-----

I was given a paper. I actually gave my own speech along the lines that we were here to discuss accelerating sustainable mobility. That is what I did. I heard no one say the debate should be on the airport. Had it been, I would have been happy to accede to that. However, to criticise me after the fact for following the Dáil instructions is not fair.

Who gave that instruction?

I did not give the instruction.

You are the Minister. The Business Committee did not ask for this. You are the line Minister and you had a meeting with the DAA today.

I presume it is the Government. The Government made the decision that we would have statements on sustainable mobility as I understand it a week ago.

The Deputy's point is made and there should be no more interaction.

The Minister interacted.

The Deputy's time is running.

As a small party, we need to prepare. In my hand is a list of the issues I was going to raise about the airport and this is the extra stuff I wanted to bring up. I spoke to my PA yesterday to discuss what we were going to speak about today. Everyone needs time to plan what they are going to say. It is understandable that we would have thought that the one thing we would have discussed with the Minister for Transport today was the airport. It is okay. I will move on.

Had someone raised that, I would have happily accommodated it. No one asked for that in advance.

It is incredible.

I will speak a bit about Dublin Airport and it is fair that I do, but I will try to mix it in with the title that has been dropped on us at late notice. We are talking about sustainable transport. We are talking about the airport. This crisis has been multifactorial and has been years in the making. It will require a turning point as to where the airport is going and this should be it. It needs to become a good employer again. It needs to become an employer that will hire staff on good wages and good terms and conditions. Staff should again be proud to work there.

The airport is now asking the Commission for Aviation Regulation, CAR, for an increase in airport charges to fund its development plans which have sustainable transport elements to them. It wants to build solar farms to help out with the airport. It wants to move to become properly carbon neutral. It wants the metro to be linked up, as we all do. It wants to reduce the number of cars using the airport. It wants more public transport using the airport. It wants to make all these changes. How can it with any credibility come to the Minister, any future Minister or the CAR and say, "We need more money. Give us your money. It will be in safe hands with us. We know what to do with it."? Its credibility has been absolutely shot.

It is a massive problem because we need an airport that functions. Air travel will be here to stay. We are an island nation; we need air travel. Air travel and aviation need to play their role on the climate agenda. This has always been a charge against the Minister. He is a Green Party member. His credentials on climate issues are unquestionable. However, there is a sense that he does not want to get involved in the airport because it conflicts with that. That is the sense that is out there. He needs to lead on this. Privately he needs to drive what needs to be done in aviation.

The lever of the pandemic was pulled very quickly cutting many staff from good secure employment, to be replaced, as the Minister is being replaced now, with other staff who are not on the same pay or terms and conditions which is outrageous. Trade unions and those of us on the left warned about this for years and it has happened.

I will raise some other issues while I have the floor. Nationwide transport fare reduction has generally been a good thing, but it has been unequally applied. I raise an issue highlighted to us by activists in Labour Youth and other activists in Wexford and the south-east region. Young people travelling to college or work from Wexford, Wicklow and Kildare have been excluded from the fare reduction. The reduction has not applied to Expressway or Wexford Bus and unfortunately many students and low-paid workers use these services to get to college or their workplace, be it in the capital or their surrounds. They feel disenfranchised and excluded from this. The Government has trumpeted this as a massively good thing. It is good for those to whom it applies, but it does not apply equally and those outside Dublin and in rural areas are suffering.

The 90-minute journey Leap card fare is also a good thing but some wrinkles need to be ironed out on a regional basis. In north County Dublin, rail services to and from Balbriggan and Skerries are excluded even though Rush and Lusk and Donabate, which are not on the DART line but on the commuter line, are included. As they are within the 90 minutes, it seems a line has been drawn in an arbitrary fashion. This could be easily resolved. Common sense demands that it would be resolved. Those in the outer Dublin area, in Fingal, South County Dublin or the west should be included in the 90-minute fare because they can take 90-minute journeys.

When we have debates, they need to deal with the issues of the day. The burning issue for the public at the moment is that of the delays at Dublin Airport. For future reference, it is critical that any Minister coming in would address many other issues but would also address the issues of the day. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has had to leave the Chamber, but I have no doubt the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will convey this back to him.

Aviation needs to be front and centre. The Minister is meeting representatives of the DAA and they will also appear before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications at 1.30 p.m. tomorrow. We need to see a plan from the DAA as to how it will ensure that passengers can get through Dublin Airport on time before the upcoming bank holiday weekend when the numbers will double from 50,000 to 100,000 passengers per day into the summer period.

We need to understand how this situation arose last weekend. Was it simply rostering? I accept there is a mismatch with the staff levels being at 70% of what they were in 2019 and traffic volumes at 90% or 95%. Ultimately what happened over the weekend is down to management. The security check workers are under extreme pressure. I regret if passengers took their frustration out on the staff who are checking bags. That should not happen and I regret if it did happen because there are reports that it did.

The public are entitled to a service from the DAA. We look forward to hearing from its representatives at the committee tomorrow. We need to know when its plan which is due to go to Government tomorrow will be published so that we can discuss it in depth.

The burning issue is obviously Dublin Airport. I am a Deputy from the mid-west and Limerick. The national aviation policy was published in 2015. The Joint Committee on Transport and Communications published a report in December 2020 calling for that to be reviewed. We now need to look at our overall policy for the distribution of airline traffic outside Dublin. Dublin Airport is creaking at the seams. Shannon Airport has a capacity to handle 4.5 million passengers per year. It peaked at about 1.7 million. It could take an extra 2 million passengers.

No doubt the same is true for Cork, Knock and other airports. That review needs to be commenced immediately. We need to look at the redistribution of air traffic to places like Shannon and Cork. Passengers can pass through Shannon in 20 minutes. It now has state-of-the-art scanning equipment. Passengers travelling to the US need only have their baggage scanned once whereas through Dublin it can be twice. Passengers can also avail of pre-clearance there. Cork is also a great airport. We are a small island nation and need to think outside the box. The Netherlands has a policy in place to redistribute traffic to other airports in the country to take pressure off Schiphol Airport.

We need to do likewise.

I will move on to deal with other issues. The Limerick Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy, LSMATS, is currently out to public consultation. There are many good things in it, including the intention to link Shannon Airport to Limerick city by rail. There is a short-term proposal for a bus service from Shannon Airport to link in with the existing rail line at Cratloe and Sixmilebridge. That plan uses the existing rail network. That is something I pushed at a public consultation meeting to consider the first draft of LSMATS. We need to see targets for the roll-out of bicycle lanes and so forth. The Minister intervened to issue a directive to the National Transport Authority, NTA, which is the professional body charged with considering this particular transport strategy for Limerick, and told it not to proceed with stage 2. That was an inappropriate intervention on the part of the Minister. I ask him to reconsider. We are looking for sustainable travel. Limerick has serious traffic problems. The northern distributor road was there for that purpose. The first phase, which was from Coonagh to Knockalisheen, has a bus lane and cycle lanes. We need phase 2 to Castletroy. There are also serious traffic problems in Corbally.

I also ask that the 20% reduction in public transport fares be extended beyond 2022. I would like to see it extended into 2023. It is a proactive measure and I would welcome its extension. We need public transport, road, rail, cycle lanes and buses working in harmony to ensure we have a better sustainable transport system.

Unlike others who have spoken before me, I will speak to the topic, which is the sustainable mobility policy. At the outset, I welcome the proposal from the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to establish and accelerate pathfinder projects.

I will speak with respect to my own city and constituency of Limerick and the mid-west region. Before and since entering government, the Minister, I and the Green Party have persuaded many stakeholders of the vision for Limerick and the mid-west of a growing, thriving, sustainable, European region that will not only provide employment opportunities for those who come from the region but which will also provide opportunities for employment, a high-quality life and quality jobs to people from across Europe and the world. We want them to come to Limerick and the mid-west to live an enjoyable, healthy and rewarding life.

This vision we sold to the people of the mid-west is underpinned by the national development plan. To achieve it, we must get planning and development right. We cannot cherry-pick from this plan. We must aggressively pursue it. Limerick will grow and the question is how that will happen, how much will it grow and how quickly. The path to fastest and best growth is to plan future development around the four rail lines that intersect at Limerick city.

We talk about transit-oriented development, which is the idea that large medium- to high-density residential, commercial and employment projects should be built on a small footprint on or near a transport node such as a train station. It is imperative that we not only provide high density but we also provide high-quality developments where people want to live. The Limerick plan is to develop a network of new stations at Ballysimon, Parkway shopping centre, Moyross, Lisnagry, Patrickswell, Adare and so on. Raheen industrial estate, for example, has 6,000 workers. I have spoken with the leaders of various industries who are very keen for a train station at Raheen industrial estate. It is critical that the LSMATS is aligned with this vision and that we look at the national planing framework to see if it is also aligned with the vision. It is also critical that the city and county development plans of both Limerick and Clare are aligned with that vision and that we get the zoning around these transport zones correct and appropriate.

It would be remiss of me not to mention, during statements on transport, the remarkable Ms Dervla Murphy, from Lismore in the Acting Chairman's county of Waterford, who passed away recently. She was a fearless, intrepid explorer who was fiercely dedicated to her mode of transport of choice, that is, the bicycle. She inspired generations to travel and to enjoy getting off the beaten track. She understood the value of spending time with local people, getting a true sense of place and she conveyed that experience to many of us through her honest and frank writing. She took the road less travelled and that made all the difference.

Unfortunately, this debate is far too short and I only have two minutes to contribute. I will try to be brief. I have been a strong advocate of public transport. I must say that the inaction over years by the Department of Transport and the NTA on simple issues that could be done immediately has been absolutely staggering. There was a consultation on Connecting Ireland but we do not have any buses. I have been asking Ministers, including the present Minister, and the NTA if they have done any scientific analysis or research on the relationship between the frequency of service, increases in that frequency and the number of passengers. The answer is a deafening silence. It is a fundamental question.

What we know, of course, is that when the frequency of rail services from Cork to Cobh and from Athenry to Galway, and bus services from Galway to Carraroe, were increased, there was a dramatic increase in the number of passengers. We need to get the academic, scientific evidence because it will stand up the proposition that if there is an infrequent service, people cannot be expected to take it.

We campaigned for three buses to leave Galway for an Cheathrú Rua and to come back along the most populated route out of Galway. It was amazing that it took a year and a half for the NTA to make a decision that should have been made in 24 hours. We hear about active travel but there is a lack of action. They want great and fantastic things but never seem to do the simple things that would change people's lives dramatically.

The point made about non-urban fares is valid. The 20% reduction in fares did not apply to the only non-subsidised company in the country, Expressway, and the private companies that provide services. It is amazing. They are all in rural Ireland, which is also amazing.

The Minister mentioned the Salmon Weir Bridge in Galway. I have for years wanted to see that bridge designated for public transport and active travel only. However, there is one snag. If we do that and do not build an extra bridge, that is, the bypass, two bridges are left across the River Corrib and one of them is very narrow. It is not adequate to allow the 80,000 people to the west and the 3 million people to the east to get across.

It is a timely opportunity to discuss transport, particularly given the biblical scenes we had in Dublin Airport over the weekend. I note the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is not here and I hope he is reading the inside of his passport where it states:

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland requests all whom it may concern to allow the bearer, a citizen of Ireland, to pass freely and without hindrance and to afford the bearer all necessary assistance and protection.

I hope when the Minister has read that, he hands it over to the head of the DAA because the delays that Irish citizens experienced last weekend, before they even got out of the State, were a disgrace. I believe the scenes are indicative of what goes on and how we work in this State. There are many queues. When one peels back the expensive veneer, there is dirty chipboard underneath. There are queues at the airport and in soup kitchens. There are invisible queues for healthcare services and for children seeking places to cater for their special educational needs.

Transport organisations and the Government must realise that after major events, such as pandemics and wars, the relationship between employees and employers needs restructuring. The terms of conditions of workers in the DAA must be considered.

Around sustainability and transport, closer to home in north Kildare, the DART service goes as far as Maynooth. There is a proposal for a station a mile from Kilcock but the line will not go as far as Kilcock. We have written several times to the Minister on this issue and I have spoken to him about it. The station is already there. The commuters are there. Kilcock is a thriving village.

We need to bring it as far as Kilcock or at least have a park-and-ride facility there to accommodate all of the people who live in north Kildare.

This weekend we will be hearing about the Kildare bus routes, Nos. 120 and 115 and the absolutely chaotic service for the thriving towns of Straffan, Prosperous, Clane and Kilcock, where the buses either arrive full or do not arrive at all and passengers are none the wiser as they wait. If a Green Party Minister cannot see the emergency in public transport in our rural towns and villages, what hope do we have? Public transport in rural areas is essential. A few cycling lanes in Dublin is just not going to cut it. Climate change is upon us and we cannot act as if it is in the future anymore. We need to pull out all the stops and deliver on public transport all across the State.

I listened to the Minister's opening statement which was absolutely tone deaf. He did not mention Dublin Airport in his opening statement and I had to ask myself if he is actually for real. It is absolutely incredible. His Cabinet colleagues must be cringing. The issues affecting Dublin Airport over the last number of weeks have been well documented. On Sunday 1,000 people missed their flights due to delays at the airport. I worked in the travel industry for 19 years and I find that absolutely unbelievable. It is unimaginable that 1,000 people went to the national airport but could not get through and missed their flights. The Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, had the audacity on Sunday to tweet advice to passengers to contact their airline. Who can get through to an airline on a Sunday? I do not know what the authority expected people to do.

This was predicted, however, and all of this has its roots in the laying off of 1,000 workers by the DAA during the pandemic and the subsequent lack of workforce planning as international travel reopened. At the time of these lay offs, Mr. Jerry Brennan of SIPTU told the DAA that it would need to rehire people because the queues would be extending through the car parks and unfortunately, never have truer words been spoken. This is incredibly frustrating and disappointing for those people who missed their flights but it has also become an embarrassment for the State. People have had to queue outside the terminal for over three hours and we have had little response from the Minister in charge. It is absolutely unbelievable that he did not mention Dublin Airport in his opening statement today. I cannot believe it. I thought I would come down and read the statement in case I missed it. There is no actual statement available which suggests the Minister was ad-libbing. If he was ad-libbing he could have at least mentioned Dublin Airport.

Adjacent to my own constituency is Shannon Airport. The types of issues affecting Dublin Airport have not been repeated in airports such as Shannon and Cork. Obviously, there is a lot less traffic at these airports. Shannon Airport is at the heart of the economy of the mid-west but for a long time it has been under-resourced and under-appreciated. The Shannon Group was over 12 months without a chairperson under the Minister's watch, at the height of the pandemic. Government supports for the workers at the airport were delivered at a snail's pace, ultimately leading to job losses. Surely following the calamity at Dublin Airport, the Minister will recognise the importance of increasing traffic through the regional airports. Prior to the pandemic almost 90% of flights departed from Dublin Airport. In debates on aviation during the pandemic there was much talk of planning for the future of aviation but the issues at Dublin Airport indicate that these plans were not developed. Shannon Airport accounts for 15,000 direct and 45,000 indirect jobs in the mid-west region. There is potential to grow and develop the airport but this must begin with an increase in flight options from the region. I would like to hear some details from the Minister on how he intends to alleviate pressure on Dublin by supporting Shannon Airport further.

Finally and briefly I want to mention a road in my constituency, the Coonagh to Knockalisheen road. The Green Party opposed it and forced it back down. The road is 35% completed but the company doing the work collapsed and went into receivership. We are now left with one third of the road built and we need to get it finished. Will the Minister intervene and make sure the contract is completed as fast as possible and that the people who build critical infrastructure are back doing just that?

The fiasco at Dublin Airport has dominated this debate today, but not by the Minister. There is no doubt that there is a significant problem with mismanagement at the airport. I wish we had more time to deal with that issue in its own right. We will need to come back to it at some point but I hope the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications will have an opportunity to go through the issues in considerable detail tomorrow.

I want to focus on the issue of bus transport. I have been an advocate and an active campaigner for better public transport for decades. I am not against changes to the bus network or to how buses are run and organised and it is important to say that at the outset. BusConnects has nine spines, two of which have been rolled out. The Howth one seemed to work very well. There were changes in the numbers but the overall service did not change an awful lot. There have been substantial changes in the C-Spine and there are significant problems with it. It is working well in some respects but not in others. Myself, my colleague, Councillor Nuala Killeen, and some other party members conducted a survey in which more than 1,200 people took part, either online or in face-to-face settings. In the face-to-face settings a very large number of people said they would not take part because the bus service no longer met their needs.

If one listens to the traffic reports on the radio, every day north Kildare is featured. We must have a bus and train service that works but there are significant problems. The NTA is very slow to make changes. I will give a quick run down of some of the issues people mentioned in the survey. Common issues were morning buses not turning up and less frequent services than previously. The No. 52 bus is scheduled to run once an hour but frequently does not turn up, both ways. People reported a high rate of empty buses. Some buses run every half an hour and on one particular route, a taxi would be an over-supply. A double decker bus is running from 4.30 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. and is practically empty when there are other routes where demand is not being met. This is a diversion from a direct service. The NTA is not managing the feedback. In fact, my office has become the complaints department. People do not feel safe at bus stops. Very often they are alighting from feeder buses in unlit areas and can be waiting for up to half an hour for the bus to arrive. There is a mismatch between the times the buses arrive. Very often the buses arrive full and an awful lot do not show up at all. I have never come across such a number of no-shows and it is not exclusively on Bus Connects. As we roll out those spines, we really have to get to grips with the problems in each before rolling out the next one. Otherwise, the same pattern will emerge.

We were told by people who want to use the bus every day and who would be very happy to do so that they cannot because of the amount of no-shows. They cannot be sure if they go that they can get back. This is a problem on the services that were privatised and awarded to Go Ahead as well as on Dublin Bus services. Frequently the No. 126 to Naas is cancelled after 7 p.m. The No. 120 bus has become a joke, particularly in the mornings. People told us that they had to take a day's leave because the bus simply did not turn up. These are buses that would ordinarily be full. These are not buses that just a small number of people are using. People are being left behind frequently. The NTA has told us that it is aware of this and is monitoring it. Either it can provide a service or it cannot.

If one makes a criticism, one has the public transport lobby on top of one saying that one should not be criticising changes but the reality is that some of those changes were not good. It was well flagged in advance that some of the changes would be problematic and would not meet the needs of the public. One thing that we did not anticipate, even when there was a service advertised, is the number of no-shows. They have become a real problem on both Dublin Bus and Go Ahead services. It is all very well to have reduced fares - that was a good initiative - but they are no good if people end up having to use taxis. I am coming across that frequently and then it becomes uneconomic to use public transport. There are very significant problems and I do not feel we are being heard. Kildare County Council is having a special meeting with the NTA to discuss the no-shows on the No. 126 and No. 120 service.

This is the kind of public pressure that is coming on in relation to delivering a public transport service. It has to be reliable. If it is not reliable, people will use it once and then give up if they have an alternative.

I cannot impress enough on the Minister of State that unless the various spines are rolled out in a way that works for people, and unless he gets that right and gets feedback from people, this will not work. The same problems are emerging for people in Lucan as are emerging in north Kildare. I ask the Minister of State to take particular note of this and to get on to the National Transport Authority to make the service work for people. These people are being told they are to be provided with a service. We will not have a sustainable transport solution if people feel that the service is unreliable.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this timely and important debate. I will not dwell too long on the absolutely farcical scenes going on in Dublin Airport at the moment, but I will reiterate every comment made by my colleague, Deputy O'Donnell, earlier in this debate and throughout the week in his role as chairperson of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. I am happy to leave it there. We all know that what is happening is completely unsustainable. There needs to be a swift and sustainable resolution. The powers that be at Dublin Airport who have allowed this to occur must be answerable to the Government and to the Oireachtas.

There are three areas I would like to focus on, which are relatively positive areas on which we should be able to find some agreement. I really welcome that we have had the first decrease in public transport fares in 75 years. This is extremely welcome. I absolutely welcome that this is scheduled to go through 2022. We need real indicators to show the success of this measure in the context of uptake in the use of public transport. If possible, perhaps this is something that should go right into 2023 also.

There are two other areas I wish to raise specifically, which will not be unfamiliar to the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, given that we represent neighbouring constituencies. The first is in relation to Luas capacity. Many of the problems faced by the Luas, and especially the green line, have been masked by the pandemic and by the welcome shift towards working remotely and will be masked by the fact that secondary schools are currently breaking up, and third level institutions have already broken up, for the summer. It cannot be avoided, however, that come September we once again will see the Luas at absolute peak capacity throughout the green line. Across my constituency, at the stops at Glencairn, Leopardstown Valley, or Ballyogan, people are prepared to take the Luas coming out of town towards Brides Glen and Cherrywood, to try to get a Luas back into town, such is the issue around timetabling, capacity and congestion. The Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, knows as well as I do that there are upwards of 5,000 new homes about to come on stream along that line on Ballyogan Road, in Cherrywood, in Glenamuck Road and in Enniskerry Road, and across Stepaside and Carrickmines. The need to genuinely look at increasing the capacity on the Luas is vitally important.

The last area of transportation and mobility I will speak on is the old reliable, which is Dublin Bus. The whole point of encouraging people to get onto Dublin Bus and use it more often is not just about frequency and fares: it is also about ensuring timetables that work around the needs of the vast majority of people who take those buses. I will give the Minister of State two examples of the No. 47 and the No. 44 buses that start out in Stepaside or Enniskerry. These routes serve many schools and businesses, along with St. Vincent's hospitals and the city centre. Those timetables are simply not working for the vast majority of people, and particularly those secondary school children in that area of Stepaside, Sandyford or Leopardstown. They simply do not have a bus available for them to get into school in adequate time. I ask the Minister of State to speak with Dublin Bus to raise this issue.

Given the disruption to transport we have all seen in the last days, it is really timely that we are having this debate now. It seems very clear that what is happening at Dublin Airport is due to staff shortages after Covid. If pay and conditions need to be reassessed to attract and retain talent, then I really hope they are reassessed. If we have Dublin Airport branded as a more attractive place for people to work, it would ensure that we could stop these absolutely embarrassing scenes we are seeing. It is embarrassing because the DAA knows exactly how many flights are coming in and going out. The DAA knows exactly how many passengers to expect but it is simply not catering to them.

I also wish to highlight some local transport issues. I have raised the matter of Kishoge rail station again and again on the floor of the Dáil. It is 12 years since the station was built and trains still whizz past it without stopping. We need that station opened. We need it opened as a matter of urgency.

On the C spine, which is one of the two BusConnects spines in operation at the moment, we need the full service and not buses that drop off the app instead of arriving. We also need to deliver a public service to the people who were previously served by the Dublin Bus routes, including those people in Hillcrest, Dodsborough, Lucan village and Laraghcon.

The planned W6 orbital route is a new route that will go from Maynooth to Tallaght. It will connect with places such as Hazelhatch, Celbridge, Newcastle, Rathcoole and Saggart. It is a really important orbital strand but we are hearing now that it is going to be delayed again. With so many students going either to Maynooth University or to the Technological University Dublin in Tallaght, we need to make sure that we are providing those transportation links, especially for those commuters going to Greenogue.

With regard to commuters, while we all absolutely welcome the implementation of the progressive and positive measure of the reduction in fares in public transport, which is currently a 20% reduction across the board and a 50% reduction for young people, I am very concerned that commuters who use public transport every day are not feeling any benefit from this new measure. A TaxSaver commuter ticket is about 20% more expensive than using a Transport for Ireland, TFI, Leap card to go in and out of work five days per week. That does not make sense. This was supposed to be a measure brought in to benefit people who plan ahead and get an annual ticket. I would love for us to take a look at this.

I will start on a positive note. For the first time, I will be able to walk my three and a half-year-old son to preschool this September because we are availing of a €12 billion investment from central government into connecting Glanmire to the city and Glanmire to east Cork. We are seeing the benefits of active travel and the extension of greenways and cycleways in my area, which is very welcome.

I echo concerns that were mentioned by Deputy Ó Cuív earlier about the frequency of services. As I said, I am lucky to live on the Cork to Cobh railway line. I regularly use the train heading up from Little Island or Glounthaune into the city. Given the Government investment of €185 million to that line to make it fully electrified and fully accessible, in a couple of years' time we will have a train every five minutes. This will be massive for the area. Unfortunately, there are many rural areas in my constituency such as Grenagh, Carrignavar, Whitechurch and Upper Glanmire where the bus service is so infrequent it is like apples and oranges when compared with the offering of public transport on both sides. I am aware that we cannot have trains on everybody's doorstep but, at the same time, in those rural areas in particular we need to have a greater emphasis on public transport in the context of our bus provision.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the debacle that is Dublin Airport. I believe it is over-simplistic for people to suggest diverting flights to Cork or Shannon but the Government and the DAA should be doing their best to subsidise additional flights out of those regional airports. Perhaps in the medium term it is one way that we could actually alleviate some of the pressure off Dublin. In the shorter term, something has to be looked at in the area of security and how quickly people can get through those channels in Dublin Airport.

The reduction in fares that was handed out some weeks ago is to be broadly welcomed. It is great to see people using that train line, which has been there most of my lifetime. I see people using it for the first time now, and using the buses that are going in and out of the city quite frequently. It is now cheaper and more competitively priced for people to leave the car at home, not have to pay the parking charges in the city, or wherever it is they are off to, and to get the public transport option. This needs to be further built on going into future budgets. It is one part of our policy where we need to sweat the assets as best we can. If these buses are running on these different lines, we need to make sure that they are full and operating at capacity to get the true benefit from them.

I am very concerned about rural train stations, and especially in my area of Carlow-Kilkenny. It is unacceptable that Irish Rail is actually downgrading these stations such as Bagenalstown and Thomastown. These stations are being left unmanned.

When people go there, there are no toilet facilities. It is very hard for tourists who want information because there is no one there to help them and guide them on where they are going. This is unacceptable. While the funding that is there is welcome, rural Ireland is never as big a part of things as it should be in reality. We should not be downgrading our train stations because they play a huge part in rural Ireland. I met representatives of Irish Rail and told them my concerns and those of the people who had contacted me about the service. I ask that this issue be addressed.

Carlow town was meant to get a town bus service, with work being done by Carlow County Council and the Minister. My understanding is that it was to be ready and up and running in the summer. Tomorrow is 1 June and I have some concerns about this. What is the timescale? I ask the Minister of State to come back to me on this matter. I know the funding is there. I have been told that by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I welcome that funding but it is important that we deliver on this project. Carlow is now a university town, as the south east has its own university. It is great to have the university but we need proper transport. We need to make sure the town bus service that was committed to is delivered on as soon as possible.

What happened at Dublin Airport was unacceptable. We cannot allow that to happen again. The coming weekend is the long weekend and we have to make sure nobody is in a position where they cannot catch their flight or miss their flight because of this situation. I ask the Minister of State to make sure of that and to keep everybody updated. I got a lot of phone calls today from people in my area asking about what will happen over the weekend, how many hours beforehand they have to be there and what the situation is. Communication from Dublin Airport and from the Government will be critical to keep people informed about what is happening in the next few days. We cannot allow that situation to happen again.

Unsurprisingly, I agree with my colleague Deputy O'Rourke, who said the Minister for Transport should have come in here today and briefed us on the shambles that is Dublin Airport and the queues there. It is horrific for people planning to go away. There is no clarity. It is an absolute shambles. The Minister of State himself would know that. It must be embarrassing to be working in the Department of Transport and to have to try to justify what is happening, because there is no justification.

I welcome this opportunity to speak on the issue of transport in Dublin Bay South. The communities in Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount are facing a nightmare due to the lack of public transport. There will be 3,500 new homes built on the Irish Glass Bottle site and there is no prospect of a Luas, which was part of the planning application and the strategic development zone, SDZ. Residents in the new houses are being held hostage. We have a cycle lane but I think I am the only one who uses it. Some 3,500 new homes are being built on this site and the Luas has been kicked down the road for another ten or 15 years. Seán Moore Road is already a car park. Residents cannot move in or out during peak hours. The Government has now decided not to put a Luas there even though that was an important part of granting planning permission for the glass bottle site. Residents feel let down by the Government. They feel it is a game of smoke and mirrors. They were told they would get a Luas, new bridges, public transport and infrastructure. The preparatory work is taking place for the homes on the glass bottle site and yet none of that infrastructure is being planned. Residents in Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount are being let down by this Government.

This is some farce. We are here to make statements on transport and the Minister for Transport is not even here. He has left. The Minister of State who is here is not even assigned to the Department of Transport. When the Minister did speak, he spoke for 20 minutes without reference to the one aspect of transport policy that the whole country is talking about, that is, the debacle at Dublin Airport. Even if we were to take into account the new language the Department has insisted we use, around accelerating sustainability and mobility, the Minister's remarks simply tell me there are two realities in this country - the reality that goes on in Eamon Ryan's head and the reality facing the real people of Ireland, constituents such as mine.

I come from a county and a region that has no rail network and this Government has zero plans to change that. Anybody relying on public transport relies on the bus services, which are minimal at best. That is being generous. Unless you are going to Dublin city centre, there is virtually nowhere you can get a public bus to from my constituency. If people do decide to get the bus, the bus station is in an embarrassing state. Again, the Minister will not intervene in that regard. The people who travel by bus by and large have to travel by private operators. They get no benefit whatsoever from the so-called discounts for public transport. When the Government introduced a 50% reduction for young people last October, I challenged the Minister on the fact that that discount would not be available to many of my constituents. Nothing has been done since. When the 20% reduction across the board was introduced as a temporary so-called cost-of-living measure, it was again not applicable to many of the people I represent. The truth is that many of them rely on their cars. While the cost of travelling to work or dropping children to school has been increasing, the Government has sat on its hands and introduced very few measures to target those costs. In fact, I would argue there are some people in government who are actually quite smug about the fact that fuel prices have increased.

Our road network is in a deplorable state. Local roads across County Monaghan and similar counties are in a desperate state while the Government takes money from the road network to put into pet projects. There is no better example than the N2, which would be a major artery to the north west. This year, the Government removed money from the section of that road going from Clontibret to the Border and put it into the Minister for Transport's pet project. When pressure was exerted by Government Members from different parts of the country, unfortunately the Government representatives from Cavan-Monaghan must have stayed silent because the project has now been shelved, according to this Minister. The Minister is quite clearly out of his depth. I hope he will prove me wrong by starting to fund projects that will actually ensure people can drive to work after paying their road tax.

I ask the Minister of State to get back to me on the issue of the CIÉ regular wages scheme statutory instrument. Five weeks ago, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, told me it would be signed within two weeks. Thousands of workers are waiting for this statutory instrument to be signed and it has already taken two years for the State to respond. This is not a great way to treat transport workers and it is certainly not a great sign of the respect and priority we give public transport. I ask the Minister of State to get back to me on that as soon as possible.

The key issue for People Before Profit is that of free and frequent public transport. We have always had a problem in Ireland when it comes to investing in public transport. At the highest level, there has been an attitude of begrudgery around State subsidies and supports for public transport. Transport emissions account for 40% of Ireland's total carbon emissions. In 2020, road transport alone accounted for 94% of transport emissions in Ireland, with private cars accounting for 74% of all journeys nationally, compared to just 7% by bus and rail. If we are to reach our climate targets, we need a massive shift away from private forms of transport, including private electric vehicles. Public transport has a vital function and role in helping society shift away from private vehicles to mass transit. There is a problem here, partly because of the legacy of begrudgery I spoke about but also due to a dearth of imagination on behalf of the Government, or a dearth of understanding as to how important public transport is and will be in dealing with the climate crisis.

Over 100 cities and regions globally have initiated free public transport, for a variety of reasons but increasingly as a climate measure.

It is not an overnight solution and we know its impact will be limited unless we also significantly increase the frequency and accessibility of public transport, not just in our towns and cities but also in our rural communities. Fare-free public transport is the future and that idea will grow. I welcome the recent fare reductions, the first in the State since 1947. Since the fare reductions in Bus Éireann and Local Link last month, passenger numbers have increased by 10%. Free public transport was provided to the over-66s and we all know the considerable benefit that continues to give.

The benefits of frequent free public transport include greater connectivity, social inclusion for the vulnerable and marginalised groups and the revitalisation of urban and rural areas. Such a shift is essential if we are to achieve our reductions in global gas emissions. People Before Profit will continue to campaign for this as an issue not just on climate but also to reduce the cost of living for all.

The chaos that was seen at Dublin Airport is the consequence of DAA management choosing to slash staff numbers, wages and conditions, taking advantage of the pandemic to drive through a shock doctrine. We have been warning the Government about this for the past two years but the Minister for Transport was asleep at the wheel. Two years ago, when the DAA announced plans to sack hundreds of workers, I spoke out multiple times in the Dáil, warning this would be disastrous. The CEO of the DAA, Mr. Dalton Philips, appeared before an Oireachtas committee in July 2020 and, again, we challenged the authority about its short-sighted, profit-driven agenda. The Government has no excuse. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, knew that the DAA was using the pandemic as an excuse to cut workers and is now trying to replace them with workers on low wages and poor contracts, and he let it get away with it. The result is serious staff shortages, massive queues and thousands of people missing their flights.

A debate is under way in Cork city on the issue of the proposals for BusConnects Cork and the shape the final plan might take. I will use this opportunity to state my views on the matter. The BusConnects proposals have many positive elements I fully support, including more bus lanes and cycle lanes and a significant cut to bus travel times. I have some concerns about the prospect of plans being railroaded through and I insist on democratic consultation with communities on issues such as making compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, in respect of gardens, changes to parking spaces and so on, should the plan go ahead.

However, the fact Bus Éireann will be forced to compete with private operators for the tenders to run the 12 Cork city BusConnects routes is a deal-breaker for me. The only way Bus Éireann can compete with these private operators for the tenders is by driving down wage costs. In fact, the company has already made a move on this by threatening a pay freeze for not one but two years. Bus services should be run for public need, not private greed, and the privatisation of Cork city bus routes would be bad news for commuters and workers alike, as already has been proven to be the case by the experience in Dublin.

While the BusConnects Cork proposals contain many ideas and initiatives I would like to support, as an advocate for workers' rights I cannot support any plan that has a privatisation agenda baked into it from the get-go.

I am sharing time with three colleagues.

The scenes we witnessed at Dublin Airport at the weekend are a damning indictment of the national aviation policy, whereby we jam 87% of passenger traffic into one airport and allow the remaining four airports to fight over the remaining 13%. I very much look forward to representatives of the DAA appearing before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications tomorrow and answering questions. The public are entitled to a service and that service is simply not up to scratch. I look forward to the representatives explaining how the DAA will get passengers through the airport in a timely fashion, which I expect them to outline tomorrow.

The underlying problem relates to the national aviation policy. We in the transport committee have received a commitment from the Minister for Transport that that policy will be reviewed. This is important not just for Dublin Airport but for the entire country. One airport is overly dominant. Other countries have examined this question, such as the Dutch Government in regard to Schiphol Airport. It has enacted policy decisions to spread out the traffic more evenly to airports in other regions of the Netherlands. A similar policy is being pursued in Finland and Austria and we need to do the same here. The national aviation policy has not been reviewed since 2015 and the mask has begun to slip, as can be seen in the chaotic scenes at Dublin Airport. We need to look at the role Shannon Airport, as well as other airports such as those in Cork or Knock outside of the greater Dublin area, can play.

I reiterate the points made by the new chairperson of Shannon Group, Mr. Conal Henry, when he appeared before the transport committee last week. He stated that the national aviation policy is a critical issue, and we need to move on that. Doing so would be good not just for the regions but for Ireland. Dublin Airport is creaking at the seams. We have spare capacity at Shannon Airport, where only one third of the capacity is used, and it would be excellent for balanced regional development. It would mean much more than a catchphrase and would bring it in line with strong Government policies such as Project Ireland 2040 and our regional economic and business plans. We need to bring the aviation policy into line with those policies and look on our airport as a regional driver of economic activity for the mid-west and the western seaboard.

In his concluding remarks, the Minister of State might confirm whether the national aviation policy will be reviewed and outline a timeframe for that.

Given the extraordinary scenes that took place in our airports over the weekend, it would have been important to have the Minister for Transport or the Minister of State at the Department present for this debate but, unfortunately, that is not the case. I wanted to put that on record, as my party's spokesperson on transport.

It is looking quite certain that next year, we will experience very turbulent economic times. The Government has put in place extraordinary plans to upgrade transport infrastructure throughout the country, which is important economically but even more so environmentally, particularly with regard to the investment in public transport. What is fundamentally important - it is a mistake that this was not done between 2011 and 2016 - is that funding be ring-fenced for public transport projects despite economic conditions. That is important work that needs to be done, not only nationally here but also in conjunction with the European Commission, to ensure we will give funding towards sustainable projects, such as those we are discussing during this debate, in order that projects relating to rail, BusConnects and other public transport will be protected no matter what the economic circumstances are, within the bounds of reason. That is fundamentally important to the future development of public transport infrastructure in this State.

In my constituency and in Cork North-Central, under the Cork metropolitan area transport CMAT, strategy, more than €1.4 billion is planned to be spent on our rail infrastructure. It is critical that that be carried out to get more cars off the road. Furthermore, from a sustainability point of view, the N7 is one of the busiest roads in the country and filters traffic coming in from Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Kilkenny all the way into Dublin. There is no concrete plan yet in place to deal with a new park-and-ride infrastructure facility such as those that are planned on other arterial routes with access to and from Dublin, and that is a disgrace. The NTA needs to grab the bull by the horns in that case and come up with some plan to keep traffic out of Dublin city. That has to be done and the fact no concrete plan is in place is very concerning.

Deputy James O'Connor: Given the extroardinary scenes that took place at Dublin Airport over the weekend, it would have been important to have the Minister for Transport or Minister of State from the Department

I have another point to make while we are discussing the airports. Along with many other Deputies, including Deputy Carey, I have worked diligently with airport management. However, when it came to getting operating expenditure funding, to help them with their operational supports, not enough funding was provided and they had to work extraordinarily hard to get access to Government and the Department on that matter. No doubt we will hear more on the public record on that tomorrow and I look forward to participating in that debate but that is a point that must be made. We must also look at the fact Dublin Airport is at capacity so now is the time for Government to put proper, concrete supports in place for flights to be diverted to Cork Airport and, in particular, Shannon Airport, which are two airports that are underserved by Government subsidies. They need to be looked at.

As yet, there is no published plan for how Dublin Airport's chief executive and board of management are going to handle the issues next weekend. I am very concerned at the way people have been treated. Families are disgusted and absolutely appalled at what happened. Approximately 1,000 people missed their flights. The stress and tension caused to families with young children, older people and people with disabilities is unforgivable. I tell the Minister and the board and chief executive of the airport that they should beware 24 June. That is an important date because it is when all our primary schools close and tens of thousands of families will be going to our airports to go on their long-awaited and well-deserved holidays. I am concerned that there will again be absolute chaos. I make the point, clearly and fairly, that the CEO is not badly paid. His wages are €366,370 per year according the 2020 annual report. There are 12 members of the board, four of whom are members of trade unions. I do not know what happened that 800 people were allowed to leave on voluntary redundancy. The DAA has never explained the who, what, where and why of that. It must do so. The people of the country are suffering and they are demanding, and are entitled to, fair and equal transport on the day they choose to avail of it. They need an explanation.

There is congestion every day on the M1 between Drogheda and Dublin, especially between Julianstown and Balbriggan. Accidents happen frequently. Every day the area is mentioned on the news. There is a serious problem here. The argument for the bypass at Julianstown has been well made. The origin and destination survey of the people who use the Julianstown bypass has not yet commenced, yet €2.6 million in funding has been identified with Meath County Council as being needed to deal with the huge traffic issues that arise in the village of Julianstown. We need that money and we need it now under the national development plan, NDP.

Then there is the issue of the cost of rail travel between Drogheda, Laytown, Gormanston and Dublin. It is unacceptable. A return day fare from Balbriggan is €8.95 but from Gormanston, which is a short distance away, it is almost double that at €15. From Laytown it is €16.90 and from Drogheda it is €19.20 for a day-return fare. It is unacceptable. I raised it with the chief executive of the NTA and made my submission to the authority. I hope it will deal with these inequalities in my constituency.

I wish to talk about trains and public transport, and the electrification of rail services in particular. There have been huge advancements with battery-electric units that have a really good range. In most cases, we will not need to build that extensive overhead network in order to provide a good, urban, electrified rail system.

Electric trains have the advantage of being much quicker to accelerate and brake, so you can have a good urban service without the slowdown in service diesels or other heavy rail vehicles necessarily involve. I urge Deputies from all parties to support further capital investment in procuring carriages and especially battery-electric carriages. Irish Rail has an extensive order in at the moment, and delivery of the first of those battery-electric units is expected. What this means is that where we do an overhead extension in an area of high urban density, we can go another 80 km on a battery-electric train. If, therefore, we electrified the overhead as far as Drogheda or out to Maynooth, we could go another 80 km. Those trains can charge at that point and then come back in those 80 km. That gives real flexibility to that rail service and it is what we need to do to decarbonise so we have trains running on electricity we generate from offshore renewable energy.

The rail line between Greystones and Wicklow is suitable for that type of expansion. Wicklow is a key growth town. Its population is going to grow and it has a very poor public transport service. It is one of the reasons the N11 is so congested. That rail line is very suitable for the first of those battery-electric trains when they arrive and also to serve areas like Newcastle, Kilcoole and south Greystones at Charlesland. These would be extra stops that add no extra journey time.

Before I start, I also want to express my disgust that the Minister for Transport came in here for 20 minutes and then scooted off again, leaving the Minister of State to take the flack. The buck stops with the Minister for the shambles that went on at Dublin Airport.

I welcome the opportunity to address the issue of transport and air my views on some of the recent developments. I start by expressing my concerns at a report in the press yesterday that seemed to throw cold water on the prospect of the Limerick-Waterford railway being used to take traffic off our roads. The report implied a senior engineering figure in the N24 project said that even if the Waterford-Limerick train service speed was increased by enough to half the journey time, use of the line would only increase by 0.3%. It would be proper for the Minister to expand on the detail of this report and outline exactly what the terms of reference relating to it were. If key factors such as timetabling were excluded, then the study does not properly assess the viability of improving the line because it does not paint a true picture. I have spoken to the Minister time and time again. The timetable as it currently stands does not suit people getting to work and does not suit students either. You could build a rail line that is the most expensive in the world but without a timetable that suits people's needs and demands, it is not going to be used to its full potential. That is why, when it comes to studies of the viability of, for example, the Limerick to Rosslare or Limerick Junction to Waterford lines, you cannot be selective about what is taken into account. I urge all involved to publish that report immediately so we can see what was taken into account and what factors this 0.3% was drawn from.

In the context of the Limerick to Ballybrophy line, millions of euro have been spent on upgrading the track to continuous welded rail. However, the current service level is again inadequate to meet the public transport needs of the communities along the line. A third middle-of-the-day service must be introduced as well as a later evening commuter service from Limerick to Nenagh. These changes are possible if the will was there to provide adequate PSO funding in the NTA's 2023 budget for additional rail services. This is where the Minister comes into it. He must make the call here. He must take the lead and deliver for the communities across the country who are sick and tired of being lectured to about alternative methods of transport, yet are being denied this luxury at every turn. Adequate PSO funding is needed and the Minister's response can make a real difference here. I call on him to take action.

The mind boggles. We are talking about transport and the Minister is not present. That is incredible.

The issues of delays with passport applications and the long delays at airports are a disgrace and need to be sorted out. My party colleagues have set out these issues in great detail. As I only have a short time, I will not dwell on them, except to say we have a great reputation as a tourist destination and this is being damaged because of incompetence and greed. This greed saw a short-term view being taken when the DAA made a third of its workforce redundant. The authority is reaping what it has sown and must engage with SIPTU to address workers' concerns if this issue is to be solved in the long term.

Rural areas of Kildare and Laois are poorly served by public transport. If the Minister is serious about climate action, this needs to be addressed. A few town links are not the answer. Kildare and Laois need a central bus hub in the likes of Newbridge and Portlaoise where town links converge and where it is possible to transfer to other services. We need to ensure that someone can go from Carbury to Naas General Hospital or from Monasterevin to Intel in Leixlip as easily as possible. We need a reliable and regular service if the Government is to entice people out of their cars. What is in place at the moment is not working.

It is great that electric cars are becoming more popular, but we are facing a ticking time bomb if the Government does not provide local authorities with funding to enable them to expand the car-charging network. What does the Minister think they are going to do and where does he think they are going to get chargers if he does not provide them with funds? Now is the time to invest in order that we are not left stranded in eight years' time.

Dublin Airport has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The debacle on Saturday and Sunday was covered by The New York Times and many other worldwide publications, with images of passengers at their wits' end and mind-boggling queues of hundreds of people trying to get into the airport building, even before they began the process of checking in bags and clearing security. The images beamed out on Sunday from Dublin Airport by the media reflect badly on the DAA and are very damaging. Several overseas visitors have already publicly vowed never to return here following their experience at the airport. Irish people hoping to start their first holiday in two years were left grounded and in limbo, many of them in tears as their flights left without them. Our land of a thousand welcomes became a place of no escape for 1,000 passengers whose feet were firmly left on the ground last Sunday. This is not the impression of Ireland we want to send across the world. Repeat performances cannot be tolerated.

Ironically, while hundreds of passengers cannot get into the airport, dozens more cannot leave it when they arrive in Dublin, especially if they arrive after midnight. This is due to a serious shortage of taxis at arrivals. It is not because there are not enough taxis available to serve the needs of incoming passengers. In fact, the opposite is the case. It is happening because regulations introduced by the DAA in 2016 changed the criteria for obtaining airport taxi permits. Now all taxis picking up passengers must be wheelchair accessible. The result is that the use of saloon style cars is no longer permitted. Due to their design, saloon cars are not capable of accommodating the standard size wheelchair. While saloon-style taxis can continue to drop passengers at the airport departures, they do not have a permit to pick up passengers at arrivals. Taxi operators must leave the airport without any passengers while lengthy passenger queues wait for a taxi outside arrivals in both winter and summer.

This is not cost effective for taxi owners, who lose half their potential earnings as they drive out of the airport empty. The important point is that it is also both perplexing and annoying for passengers, particularly those arriving in Ireland from abroad who have travelled during night hours and who have travelled on long-haul flights. Nobody wants to queue for a taxi in the middle of the night. The provision of user-friendly transport options for disabled people is of major importance to everybody. The DAA is to be commended on taking action in this regard, but surely with a little initiative it is possible to meet the needs of everyone.

I will highlight another anomaly that is both extraordinary and ridiculous. It is happening in Tipperary and elsewhere across the country. At present, drivers must stop driving school transport when they reach their 70th birthday. This is causing a major problem for school transport companies. The age profile of drivers is climbing as it is not viable for younger people to attain a D licence due to the cost of qualifying as a professional driver. The bus and coach industry is suffering. It cannot get young drivers. The majority of drivers on school runs are retired people who choose to work part-time and those who had the correct licence category from the old licensing system. Ironically, drivers over 70 years of age can continue to work in private hire once certified medically fit. They can also take a full-size coach to the UK or any part of Europe, but they cannot do a local school run. It defies belief. People over 70 years of age can also work for other State bodies, such as TFI, so why does the age rule apply to school transport? This rule should and must be changed to safeguard the future of school transport. Age is not a number, and a person's worth is not determined by his or her birth certificate.

I was hoping the Minister would be present because, on 28 April, I highlighted to him during Leaders' Questions the dysfunction that exists in DAA management, which was clearly seen at the weekend. It is also a reflection of the Government's ability to spend eye-watering sums on Dublin Airport without any regard to the efficiencies or capacities it delivers. I suggest that the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, look at the exclusions that were offered to workers who were made redundant and see if they can be brought back on short-time working. Perhaps the Army could be brought in as well to try to get over this debacle.

I also wish to speak about Waterford Airport, the home of Rescue 117, and the capacity increases that were mooted for that airport in the 1990s. It was, in fact, the first regional airport used by a fledgling Ryanair. The runway extension to allow jet activity was in the previous programme for Government, but it was walked away from because of prevailing politics at the time. The airport's catchment mirrors that of University Hospital Waterford, with more than 530,000 people living in the area. There is a population of 1.5 million, which is growing, within 90 minutes' travel time of Waterford Airport. On 28 April, I also raised with the Minister the Department's stated funding of €160 million for the national aviation sector, while bypassing Waterford Airport completely. I expect the Minister of State will have heard in the news this morning that private equity of €8 million has now been secured for Waterford Airport to fund the expansion of the runway extension there. It will also require a combined investment of €2 million from the local authorities and €5 million from the Government. I thank Deputies Verona Murphy and Lowry, who are in the Regional Group, for visiting, and making representations for, the airport.

I will make a few points that the Minister of State might convey to the Minister. I expect that this funding will be delivered by way of grant aid and not be based on some public procurement capital plan. Currently, we are a year down the road in Waterford in trying to acquire lands for the South East Technological University. Grant money would be the most expeditious way to deliver funding to the airport. If the cost envelope for this new runway extends beyond what has been anticipated, the people of the south east and I would expect that the Government will fund any shortfalls. That is equitable treatment, and it is something the Government has announced for shoring up cost overruns in other public sector procurement processes under way at present. I also ask that the Minister make a formal announcement as soon as possible welcoming the private sector announcement and honouring the deal that was made with Waterford and the south east regarding delivery of this vital infrastructure. It is long past time that it was delivered.

I refer to the recent public transport fares reduction, with the NTA launching a 20% reduction in public transport fares. Why was this not extended to the private sector, particularly to bus operators? Semi-State companies should not have a monopoly in this country, but that is exactly what the Government is now reinforcing with its policy. It is uncompetitive and discriminatory against private bus operators. It will mean that private routes will be lost in the future, thereby discommoding customers with less choice and more costs. I ask the Minister of State to speak to the NTA to find a way to try to support a ticketing solution to deliver discounts in these private fares as well.

With respect to heavy goods vehicle, HGV, and bus and lorry driving licences from Ukraine, and this has arisen previously, we have a number of people in this country who have both HGV and bus licences but who cannot have them accepted by the NTA. Car licences are immediately accepted in this country. Again, this is something that must be examined.

On cardiac care, I raised in the House in the last week the issue of 134 blue-light transfers out of Waterford, with the average travelling time to Cork taking three hours and 15 minutes. Perhaps the Minister might care to make a public comment on the Tánaiste's statement in the House during the debate on the national maternity hospital that it had to be in Dublin because a lady suffering a cardiac arrest could access ICU care in 20 minutes. What does that say for us in the south east? Is the Government aware that the international standard protocol for accessing cardiac catheterisation is 90 minutes from the onset of pain and first responder?

These are matters I hope the Minister of State will take up with the Minister. We need the N25 upgraded to give us a cardiac pathway for out-of-hours care. Far more importantly, we need the delivery of 24-7 cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford. I expect to see this delivered in the Government's programme.

On 30 July 2009, the former Minister, Mr. Noel Dempsey, travelled from Cork to Midleton to reopen the rail link to Midleton. There had been a big campaign for a number of years and it was a huge success. I recently met with an official of Íarnród Éireann and he told me it is planned to electrify the system from Mallow to Midleton to Cobh and it is planned eventually to have services every 15 minutes. That is very good. Part of the issue that happened there was that a lot of land had to be zoned in the area to provide a population base to make it sustainable. That has been done.

The N25, which is very close to this, is not fit for purpose and recently the Minister pulled a project to upgrade it.

That puts 2,500 houses at risk, does not help to make what is a very dangerous road safer and further locks in a 64 ha Industrial Development Agency, IDA, site because the road is not upgraded. Perhaps the Minister of State could give us some clarity on that at some stage. It is hugely important.

In my area there is the N25 Castlemartyr bypass. My colleague, Deputy Shanahan, has just mentioned the N25 as well. There are massive tailbacks on that road at this time of the year, every day and every evening, leading to Castlemartyr. Anyone who listens to the radio reports will hear about that. That needs to be progressed. I know there are now plans to upgrade the road from Midleton all the way to Youghal, but we have tailbacks of cars sitting there spouting diesel and petrol fumes for hours on end, causing frustration and delays and costing money. That needs to change.

Has anyone ever considered a school town bus service? Every morning I notice massive congestion around schools where people drop their children to the door of the school if they can or as close as possible. There are one or two children in each car. That causes congestion, with people rushing and under stress. A local school bus service, in the larger towns in particular, could alleviate a lot of that problem.

They are just some of the issues I wanted to raise.

I welcome today's debate on transport. It is a hugely importantly topic. The recent capacity issues at Dublin Airport demonstrate yet again the need for a national aviation policy. What happened to people left stranded was outrageous. We need an all-Ireland approach to aviation as distinct from a Dublin Airport-centric policy. The sooner we have that debate the better.

I come from a rural constituency, Mayo. A majority of people living there are reliant on private cars. We do not have the frequency of public transport to accommodate people's need to travel to local towns and villages. Even though Mayo Local Link is making huge strides, it will be some time before we have the frequency of public transport necessary for a reliable rural service. The Government should introduce an enhanced grant scheme for electric vehicles for those living in rural Ireland. Providing people in rural Ireland with better incentives to switch to EVs makes sense not just for individual purchasers but also for the State as we strive to reduce transport emissions by 51% by 2030. If the Government is serious about getting as many petrol and diesel cars off the road as quickly as possible, it must introduce an enhanced grant scheme in tandem with increased investment in public transport connectivity and EV charging points in rural communities throughout the country.

While Government policy is to encourage people to take public transport, many small towns and rural parts of Ireland have not yet seen the signs of a bus stop, never mind a bus shelter. That needs to be addressed as a matter of priority. The roll-out of bus shelters needs to be addressed. It is to be hoped a plan will come soon.

As for rail, overcrowding on the Iarnród Éireann Westport route is causing huge concern during peak time on trains out of Heuston Station. It is certainly a deterrent to commuters, students and professionals. Additional investment is urgently needed to provide additional carriages in order to address the issue.

Whatever about the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, not being present, the fact that no officials from the Department are physically present in the Chamber to observe the debate speaks more volumes. The Minister is busy, I understand, and the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will probably tell me that the officials are watching the debate from home or online, but that speaks to a bigger problem which manifested itself on Sunday in Dublin Airport, that is, that nobody seems to take responsibility. Nobody in the DAA will pay for what happened. The taxpayer will pay by refunding passengers. Nobody in the Department of Transport will take responsibility for what happened to the thousands of people and the stress that manifested itself. That has to be dealt with, not just in the Department of Transport but across so many other Departments involved in the front line.

When it comes to sustainable transport, I really welcome the announcements made yesterday by Irish Rail about expanding services across County Mayo, in particular the introduction of a morning link service from Ballina into the Dublin-Westport route and the ongoing expansion of services to the Ballina freight depot. We have, however, a golden rail project that is sustainable, namely the western rail corridor and its expansion up into Claremorris and on to Sligo. That has been parked in an all-island rail review, while it seems other services around the country are being allowed to proceed. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is either serious or not about sustainable transport. There is no sense in us sitting here like dogs barking without teeth. This project absolutely stands up when it comes to building sustainable transport, equipping the economic side of the west of the country and building up the Atlantic economic corridor, yet there is no commitment within the Department or among officials. There is a consistent blocking policy. That is why it is parked in an all-island rail review. That is not good enough anymore. The project adds up. It is sustainable. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, keeps telling us we need sustainability. We keep being told that rural Ireland has to become more sustainable. A project was put in front of the Minister. He needs to move it on and not park it. That is what sustainable transport is.

Similarly, when it comes to transport projects in rural areas, it is a matter of building up the sustainability of the economy of rural areas to act as a bulwark against the very strong economy of Dublin. Building proper and accessible roads, such as the N26 from Ballina into Swinford and the R312 from Castlebar to Belmullet, develops strong communities and allows people to stay within their communities rather than commuting and travelling big distances. That argument, however, does not seem to be understood. These are not roads for the sake of roads. They are all building up and supporting communities and keeping people in rural areas and stopping them from having to come to the cities.

Sustainability and transport are absolutely dependent issues, but there needs to be a far more ambitious understanding of what sustainability is within the Department of Transport and on the part of the Minister himself. Rather than talking about it, we need to see action for once and for all.

I welcome this debate, although the change to the title has caused some problems, which were entirely foreseeable. Therefore, I am quite surprised that the issue of the day was not front and centre in the Minister's contribution, but I will come back to that.

I lend my support to the students of Ireland on the fare reduction scheme currently in place. I would like very much for that scheme to be continued to incentivise further the students to use public transport to get more people out of their cars. Most Members of the House to whom I have spoken so far over the past day agree with that, so I ask the Minister of State to convey that to the Minister.

I call on the NTA to ensure that Dubliners are not deliberately excluded from the 90-minute fare zone. As the Minister of State will have heard, Skerries and Balbriggan are not included but clearly should be. An exception should be made and we should get that done. Deputy O'Dowd mentioned the massive fare variations after Balbriggan or the station after that. We need to move away from that. It should be a fare based on getting on and getting off, not the distance travelled. If we want to encourage people to use sustainable transport and battery electric trains, we should charge them a modest amount and the State will pick up the tab for the transport company because it is about the environment as well.

The only thing we should be discussing, however, is the predictable and unforgivable scenes at Dublin Airport at the weekend. Ministers have met with the DAA, yet we are no clearer if the scenes of last weekend will be repeated this coming bank holiday weekend. I have very little faith that they will be avoided. How many need to be in the queue before somebody asks if heads should roll? If airport operations cannot be managed, I cannot be alone in suggesting there needs to be a change. I am not referring to the chief executive, who has already announced his intention to move on. We have known for almost three months that passenger numbers were rising. It is unacceptable to hear that the DAA does not know how many passengers it is to expect on any given day. It sells the slots, it knows the aircraft types and it can extrapolate the data, yet it does not appear to be capable of doing so. That is frankly bizarre. The whole situation stinks.

It would be remiss of me in the last few seconds I have left not to mention sustainable transport and Dublin Airport in the same breath without mentioning MetroLink. We are almost at the end of quarter 2 and the railway order was due by the end of quarter 2. I would like to know where that railway order is and to hear back from TII as to whether any aspect of the delivery of MetroLink can be accelerated.

Having spoken with industry experts in other jurisdictions in recent months, I find it hard to believe that the people of Dublin cannot expect a metro until 2034, and rising. We need to get real. We need to have a critical analysis of the skill set within the planning sections in Departments and their ability to deliver on these critical pieces of social transport infrastructure.

I am appalled that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is not here. I am also very disappointed that no officials are here. It is a case of do what you want and to hell with what we feel in here.

The Minister is at a Cabinet meeting.

I do not know what the Minister of State said. Anyway, it is sad. I remember that officials could be here all night.

There is ageism and discrimination against men and women who, when they reach 70, cannot drive a bus that does school runs, although they can bring people to matches and everything else. They are willing to get a doctor's certificate and to have a medical twice a year if necessary. The system should be changed as it is discrimination.

I must also mention the Waterford to Limerick rail line. It is disgraceful the way it is trundling along and has been abandoned. When people arrive in Clonmel station by bus or train, it is locked up and there are no toilet facilities or anything else. It is disgraceful for public transport to treat people like that.

I also wish to speak about the discrimination against rural transport users following the recent reduction in the cost of public transport. It is not all about Dublin, but as Dublin has been mentioned, I will refer to a previous Minister, Mr. Ross, who is guilty of appointing the CEO and other members of the board of the DAA in the past. He wrote a lovely book one time about the snouts in the trough. I wonder whose snouts he put in the trough - his own friends and those who campaigned for him. They are obviously unable to do the job. I am aghast at their singular ineptitude and failure. It will probably happen again next weekend because we do not have people with understanding and the wherewithal and everything else. It is a shocking indictment of different Ministers. The cronyism, nepotism and whatever you want to call it is disgraceful.

We are debating transport issues without the Minister with responsibility for it being here. Perhaps he is at the bog or doing something productive.

He is at a Cabinet meeting.

That is highly unlikely, but as Deputy McGrath said, he is not in the bog, but he is definitely in a fog, because any man that has responsibility for transport issues in this country who could not afford us the courtesy and the time to be here to properly participate and listen to the debate is totally outrageous.

This Government plans to invest €3.8 billion on public transport protection and renewal, including fleet renewal of rail and buses, and switching to electric vehicles across urban fleets. Buses and light rail in Dublin are earmarked to obtain the largest share of this funding. There is no surprise in that. I want to remind the Minister what I want from him. I am dealing with a Minister for Transport who does not like building roads. I want the bypass for Adare to be built. I want the bypass for the bypass in Killarney to be built, going from Lissyviggeen to Farranfore, and the preferred route to be announced very shortly. I want the link road from Lissyviggeen Cross to Muckross Road to be built very shortly, but I am relying on the wrong man to do that.

The shambles that has taken place at Dublin Airport in recent days is a disgrace and, again, the Minister is doing nothing about it.

Like my colleagues, I am very disappointed that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is not here today. Regardless of anything else, he knew his time slot the same as everybody else, and he could have been here. Perhaps transport is not something he is interested in. He is not connecting Ireland, as he promised. He is disconnecting Ireland. That is what he has done. So many speakers have been talking about train services and even electric trains. We do not even know what that means in west Cork. We cannot get a bus service. The Government is two and a half years in office. It has failed the people for two and a half years. For two and a half years, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party have failed to provide a proper bus service for the people of Dunmanway to Clonakilty or from Clonakilty to Dunmanway through Ballynacarriga. The Government has failed to provide a bus service to Goleen and back. West Cork Connect put forward a plan to the National Transport Authority recently to do it free of charge and it refused it. The Government continues to disconnect rural Ireland and it does not care. It does not understand, or it does not give a damn. How are the people of Eyeries, Allihies, Ardgroom and Castletownbere going to survive? They deserve a service the same as the people of Dublin, as do the people of Goleen, Dunmanway and Clonakilty, but they are not getting the service because the Government is failing 100% to deliver for the people.

The 20% decrease in transport fares, with a 50% decrease for young people, is a great idea, but not for the people of rural Ireland. The private operator which carries the biggest percentage of people - I do not know how many million people it carries every year - cannot apply for the 20% or 50% decrease, so the young people who leave Skibbereen and Bantry every day to head to Cork or Dublin will not get a brown cent of that back into their pocket. This is a disgrace for the Government. It is a complete attack on the people of rural Ireland.

There has been talk about the crisis in Dublin Airport. We have no crisis in Cork Airport. If the people are brought down to Cork, we will make sure they fly out on time. The great people of Cork Airport will sort it out, and the same is true for the people in Kerry and Mayo, but Dublin Airport has made an absolute shambles of it. Nobody is answering any questions about what is going wrong. We are only going around in circles in recent weeks. I could spend two hours talking about the issue this evening if I had time.

Social media is a great thing and if we look at it, we will see that more than 12 months ago I brought up that pre-Covid Dublin Airport had 31 million people going through it; Shannon had 1.8 million, with a capacity of 4.5 million; and Cork had 2.4 million, with a capacity of 5 million. I asked the Government at that time to disperse the traffic, which would have lowered emissions for people travelling to airports and would have made other airports sustainable. Did the Government listen? No.

The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, came to Limerick on a train and sent down the State car with his bicycle in the boot. That is what he does while he is talking about carbon emissions. He sends down a State car. He cycled down the main street of Limerick thinking he was a great man. I invited him to spend a week in a town or village in Limerick so he would understand what it is like to have no transport. He did not even have the respect to come in here today.

I have a message for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I believe Fossetts Circus is going around the country to reintroduce the circus in Ireland. I reckon that with his CV, he would not even qualify to be a clown in that circus because of his lack of understanding of Ireland and the people of Ireland whom he is supposed to be representing. He does not understand transport in Ireland. The Minister should take up my offer to come to Limerick for a week. I will educate him - bicycle and all - and I will educate him on what it is like to live in a town or a village in rural Ireland with no transport.

In the interests of fairness, and for the record, I am conscious of the fact that people get very emotive about some of these subjects, and I wish to make a couple of points.

First, although I was not here, the debate was opened by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who spoke for 20 minutes, so he was here and he did participate.

Second, there is a long-standing tradition in the House of Members understanding when a Cabinet Minister has to depart the House to take part in a Cabinet meeting.

Third, comments were made about somebody who is no longer in our midst - I am sure we all miss him very much - the former Minister, Mr. Ross. I am sure there was no intention to imply any mal-intent on his part when he appointed whoever he appointed to the Dublin Airport Authority.

He had plenty of snouts in the trough. He wrote about them.

Okay. I thank Members for listening.

We note you took no exception to the clown reference, a Cheann Comhairle.

I guess he could.

I have just three and a half minutes so I will focus on a number of points if the Minister of State does not mind. The fact that the number of people on public transport has substantially and significantly increased because of the reduced fares proves exactly what some of us on this side of the House have been saying for a very long time. In fact, we have asked for free public transport. I repeat what colleagues have already said in that regard.

I would love to know what we are paying in fines if the Minister of State has the information to hand. What fines are we paying on a regular basis for breaching our obligations under European legislation? We clearly need to take radical action in order to meet our commitments for 2030 and 2050.

Before I refer to Galway city, I would like to sound a note of caution about electric cars and where we are sourcing the cobalt and lithium. This is something that has not been mentioned at all in the Dáil and I would like a response from the Government regarding the human rights abuses in Congo, the use of very young children and the very exploitative working conditions concerning the extraction of cobalt in particular.

I would love to see an analysis done on that.

The Minister visited Galway two weeks ago and confirmed funding was available for a feasibility study on light rail. That has never been carried out. It is one of the most basic requirements in Galway city, which is destined to increase its population by 50%. More than four years ago, 24,000 people signed a petition calling on the Government to carry out a feasibility study. As usual, the people are way ahead of us. They will move to public transport. They do not need enticement. What they need are options, which we do not have. We have not done what the people of Galway asked us to do. We have not provided park and ride, which is a source of great upset to me because I was mayor at the time. We led on this, as did the councillors, and put an objective in the city development plan to roll out park and ride in 2005. Here we are in 2022, the National Transport Authority has taken over, and its latest response is it is looking at park and ride possibly being provided on the east side of the city but the west side is being ignored completely.

The Minister talked about school transport. There is major potential if we revisit school transport with buses that could be multifunctional but are not being used. There are some changes in the rail system from Athenry and Oranmore, which are very welcome, but they are very late and are ad hoc. There is no sense of urgency whatsoever in respect of climate change or the climate and biodiversity emergencies. We need transformational change. We do not need to talk about encouraging people. They are crying out to do it differently and we need to do it differently.

I once again appeal on the public record for the most basic thing: a feasibility study on light rail for Galway. It should consider school transport and park and ride, and ask why in God's name we are allowing the National Transport Authority to delay and delay with something as basic and fundamental as that.

I will outline my points in three areas. A free, widely available and decarbonised public transport system must be at the heart of a just transition and transformation. In Ireland, transport makes up the largest demand for energy. It is responsible for more than 40% of energy-related CO2 emissions. In 2021, private cars represented 42% of total transport energy demand. In the same year, bus or coach represented only 3% and rail was less than 1% of that demand. To remove the dependency on private cars, we need to transform our public transport system. We need an intermodal system of buses, light rail, walking and cycling lanes. We need to connect rural areas to the main towns and cities and vice versa. Bus and rail need to be interconnected and adapted to local needs. All railway routes and stations that were taken out of service need to be brought back into service.

Public transport has to be seen as a public service. All public services must be accessible to everyone and free at the point of use. This is something the State has yet to achieve in any of our underfunded public services. Public transport needs to be widely available and free to encourage people to use it instead of private cars. The 20% reduction in fares introduced in April will help, to a degree, people struggling with high inflation and stagnant income, but it is not enough. The public transport subsidy for Dublin Bus compares very badly with other European cities at 29%, which is only half of the average across Europe. For example, Lyons in France has a 79% subsidy, Brussels has a 68% subsidy and most comparable European cities are above a 60% subsidy.

The other aspect of this issue is the removal of fossil fuels from the transport system, not only to avert a looming climate disaster but to eliminate the growing problem of air pollution. We know that densely populated areas with high traffic levels particularly affect children. Our public transport system needs to be upgraded using electricity and hydrogen fuels as an alternative to diesel. I take Deputy Connolly's point about lithium and cobalt. We must have an investigation into their use and human rights abuses in the Congo and so on.

For a high-quality, free public transport system to be viable we need a sustainable approach to urban mobility, transport and planning and development in rural areas. New housing must be concentrated in villages to allow for good transport links that will allow people to access jobs, schools, shops and other essential services. We will no doubt be told this will cost a lot and we cannot afford it. My answer to that is we cannot not afford it. Everything has to change. The global neoliberal economic model of capitalism is dependent on oil. Rich countries are dependent on it, while at the same time authoritarian regimes depend on selling it to rich countries. One way or the other, oil creates pollution, climate damage, social injustice and wars. The change has to come.

I thank all Members for their contributions. It is clear we are all committed to improving and increasing sustainable mobility throughout the country.

Transport is central to Ireland's decarbonisation efforts. In 2020, road transport alone accounted for 94% of transport emissions. Road transport also contributes to increased levels of noise, collisions, congestion and pollutants that can have a negative impact on people's health and the environment. To garner permanent reductions in our emissions, we must make changes in our everyday life towards sustainable behaviours. The Government has committed to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland to reduce our carbon emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change. As the Minister outlined, we are putting in place the infrastructure, services and structures to reduce car dependency and implement a major shift towards sustainable mobility. We are taking action now that will pay dividends in future years.

Our commitment is evident in the national planning framework, the climate action plan and the national sustainable mobility policy. It is also backed up by the funding allocated under the national development plan, NDP. The unprecedented funding for transport under the NDP will enable significant investment in walking, cycling, bus and rail infrastructure and will expand sustainable mobility options in our cities, towns and villages. We are already seeing evidence of this investment throughout the country. NDP funding will support the commencement of major public transport projects of BusConnects in our five cities, and DART+ and MetroLink in Dublin, along with increased investment in the interurban and regional rail network. This will be complemented by an expansion of public transport services, including in rural and regional areas, under the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan.

The Government is strongly committed to funding active travel infrastructure to provide more walking and cycling facilities to increase people's green travel options. According to the Central Statistics Office, almost 30% of trips are less than 2 km of which 57% are made by car. The significant investment in active travel infrastructure over the next three years will enable more of these, and some longer journeys, to be made by walking and cycling. Improving our walking, cycling and public transport options can also deliver social change. Everybody should be able to use active travel and public transport regardless of their ability or background. Sustainable transport modes are not only the most environmentally friendly options; they are also the most economically accessible and socially inclusive. They are a key part of a just transition towards meeting our climate goals and they will help us meet our targets in a fair manner.

The goal of the Minister for Transport is to increase the number of sustainable mobility options available to all our citizens. Where possible, he is incentivising public transport through investment in new services and infrastructure as well as by reducing the fare structures. In recognition that it is not always possible to provide public transport, especially in remote areas, there is also a complementary suite of incentives to electrify private transport, such as the electric vehicle purchase grant and the domestic charger grant scheme.

Alongside the climate action plan, the new sustainable mobility policy is central to ensuring we meet our ambitious climate targets. The actions under the new policy provide an opportunity to change our daily travel choices by making it easier and more attractive for people to make fewer private car journeys and to use walking, cycling and public transport, where possible. The Department of Transport listened closely to stakeholders in developing the policy and action plan to ensure we are focusing on the right measures.

We have the right plans and policies in place and our focus now is to accelerate delivery. Key to this delivery is the new leadership group led by the Department of Transport in collaboration with the NTA, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, local authorities and regional assemblies. This group will work collaboratively with relevant stakeholders to drive the implementation of programmes, such as BusConnects in the five cities, the connecting Ireland rural mobility plan and other key active travel and public transport projects.

As the Minister outlined, the first task of this group is to agree a mechanism to deliver a programme of pathfinder projects of scale at local level over the next three years. The group is already working to identify a programme of projects that will provide a template of people-focused development that can be replicated and scaled up. Drawing on the experiences of collaboration across the public service during the Covid-19 pandemic, experimental and innovative approaches are being encouraged where they can be delivered and at pace. These projects will demonstrate their capacity to achieve carbon abatement and other important co-benefits in line with the policy’s goals.

The next iteration of the Climate Action Plan this year will be based on legally binding sectoral emission ceilings, including for transport. The first carbon budget to 2025 is likely to be particularly challenging for the transport sector, as embedded behavioural change elements are more difficult to achieve in the shorter time horizon. It will be important to demonstrate the types of project and initiative that can deliver a lower carbon future for transport. For this reason, the pathfinder programme is intended to offer a pathway and a vision of sustainable mobility in practice, which can act as a catalyst for the wider changes required across society and be replicated at national level.

Through continued collaboration with our stakeholders at national, regional and local levels, we can implement real change and make sustainable mobility the preferred option for as many people as possible. I thank the House for giving me the opportunity to speak on this issue.

I thank the Minister of State for that comprehensive response.

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