I will ask a few questions. I apologise for not being here the whole time because of voting and so on, but we are back and I had read the opening statement in advance and have gone back over it. The topics themselves, while broad, are so relevant now. In my time in politics, I saw changes including the M50 finally being finished, the Luas, DART, Leap cards coming in, and real time bus information.
There was a time when ten-journey paper tickets were an innovation. The world of transport has moved on a lot, yet we could still do an awful lot more. When I was away in another country, I was able to tap my credit card in the airport to get onto the metro, tap off afterwards and did not have to worry about finding a Leap card or whatever. In another country, not close to here, the airport bus was cash only, but it was the only money I needed throughout my time in the country.
Every country is different but we have moved on a lot and there is an awful lot more we can do, not least to get people out of the comfort zone of their cars, especially on days such as today when you might think the car is in the driveway, it is a bit cold, wet and miserable and maybe the traffic will not be that bad. We are doing a lot but it is for us to be able to see it. I hope the witnesses will be able to facilitate some members of the committee in turning up at the conference and seeing all the innovation because it is about what we can do as legislators and as a sounding board to articulate to Ministers and people such as officials in the Department of Transport and so on as to what we need and want.
I cycle most days and people give out about cyclists, but almost every cyclist is taking a car out of the system. For the day they are cycling, they are no longer using their car. A car or a motorist - I am a motorist as well – might see 20 cyclists and give out about them moving faster than him or her, but they would otherwise have been in cars, or a lot of them would have been, and therefore, we are taking a lot of congestion out of the system the more we have active travel, safer routes to schools, safer routes to employment and so on. Cycle lanes are now at the stage where they are filling up with leaves, given the time of year, and it is about how we can make sure they are not.
I argue that there are two big barriers to me cycling in Dublin city, excluding Leinster House given the security of my bike, where it could not be safer. In other parts of Dublin, however, you would not be absolutely sure that if you went into a cinema or restaurant, you could come out a few hours later and your bike would still be where it was. The second barrier relates to broken glass all over the place. Broken glass is found in cycle lanes, on roads and in other places and it is an enormous deterrent, not least when you are cycling in not especially nice weather and all of a sudden you get a flat tyre, have to make other arrangements and so on. There is an awful lot to be said for it, and while we are not where we need to be in terms of cycling infrastructure, we are certainly moving in that direction. I felt we would bring in the witnesses for the benefit of people watching the meeting, give them a platform to show what they are doing and let Irish society, as much as people throughout the world, know what they are up to.
What else can we do for the witnesses between now and April to publicise the conference or let it be known? From the point of view of our constituents and the people who live in our areas, what benefit do the witnesses see for them in the long term from such a conference? It is very prestigious in that it has been held only eight or nine times, or whatever it is, yet it is coming to Dublin. We are not the biggest centre of public transport in the world. At the conference we attended in Seville, which Mr. McCarthy also attended, I was in the room when we were told the Madrid public transport system had a greater level of usage than the populations of about seven or eight member states of the EU. There are about 8 million or 9 million people in that general catchment of the wider Madrid area and there are about eight countries in the EU, including our own, with populations less than that. We may think we are big, therefore, but we are a minnow in regard to the moving of people, to say nothing of China, India or parts of South America and so on, which have gigantic populations moving by public transport.
We have a lot to learn and benefit from. I recall the Luas starting and there was no one on the track, but the minute the track opened it was like a magnet and it just sucked people in from 15 or 20 minutes away on either side of the track. People were willing to walk in the knowledge that when they got there, they would not have to worry about when the Luas was coming because it comes every three, four or five minutes most of the time, or perhaps a little longer on a Sunday morning. It is so reliable that people are willing to walk that journey because they know it will be there. It is about the reliability and the safety. The fare decreases, to be fair to the Minister and the Department, have been very positive and the 90-minute fare has been an excellent innovation. It is a very simple innovation in some ways, yet it is a game changer for how people are starting to use public transport. Anything that gets people out of their cars and reduces congestion is a positive for everybody, including all the motorists who might not be in a position to use public transport because they might live in a more remote area but end up in an urban setting. What else can we do for our guests and what points that have not been touched on would Mr. McCarthy like to make before we conclude?
