Select Committee on Transport and Communications debate -
Tuesday, 28 Nov 2023

Vote 31 - Transport (Supplementary)

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Steven Matthews)

Apologies have been received from Deputy Cathal Crowe. The purpose our meeting is to consider the Supplementary Estimates for Public Services in respect of Vote 31 - Transport. I would like to remind members that the committee has no role in approving the Estimates. It is an ongoing opportunity for the committee to examine departmental expenditure to make the process more transparent, and to engage in a meaningful way on relevant performance issues.

I thank the Department and the Minister for the briefing notes circulated before the meeting. I welcome the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his officials to the meeting.

Before we start, all witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if witnesses' statements are potentially defamatory with regard to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks, and it is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. For anyone watching this meeting, Oireachtas Members and witnesses now have the option of being physically present in the committee room or to join the meeting remotely via Microsoft Teams. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where they not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting. In this regard, I ask any member participating via Microsoft Teams that prior to making a contribution to the meeting, they confirm they are on the grounds of the Leinster House campus.

I invite the Minister to make his opening statement.

Minister for Transport (Deputy Eamon Ryan)

I thank the Acting Chair and the committee for this opportunity to present details of the Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Transport. The Supplementary Estimate is in two parts: a substantive Estimate voting additional funds to the Department, and a technical Estimate, reallocating capital funds within the Vote between different subheads. In total, €81.468 million in additional current expenditure funds will be allocated to the Vote, and €68.6 million in capital funds will be reallocated to other subheads within the Vote.

Taking the substantive Supplementary Estimate for current expenditure first, €57.4 million will be allocated to public transport public service obligation, PSO. The Covid-19 crisis had a profound impact on the public transport sector. At the height of the restrictions, public transport numbers fell to below 10% of pre-Covid-19 levels. However, passenger numbers rebounded strongly in 2022 and we are now above pre-Covid-19 levels, with particularly high volumes experienced at weekends.

In budget 2023, €563,774,000 was allocated to ensure the delivery of public transport services, including rural transport services. Of this, funding was provided for the continuation of the 20% average fare reduction on PSO services, introduced in 2022 as part of a suite of cost-of-living measures; and the continuation of the young adult card initiative on both PSO and participating commercial bus services. Included in the above, some €23 million was provided for the introduction of new and enhanced public transport services under programmes such as BusConnects, Connecting Ireland and new town services.

The impact of the 20% fare initiative, the young adult card and the 90-minute fare have all meant that the average fare per passenger is lower, meaning that supplementary funding is required to ensure the continued operation of the network to year end at the existing levels of service. I am pleased to see passenger numbers performing so well and expect continued growth in passenger numbers into 2024, as we continue to deliver on our commitment to improve and expand our public transport services.

Some €3.5 million will be allocated to rural transport services to support improved connectivity for Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection. The Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority, NTA, have consistently monitored and responded to the ongoing situation and factored in the geographical spread of applicants into the public transport planning process. The Department and the NTA keep the issue of transport provision under review as this situation continues to evolve. Of the €3.5 million, €1.5 million is for potential new routes being advised based on the latest assessments of need by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

The third item in the Supplementary Estimate concerns fuel relief for hauliers. In March 2022, the Government approved a licensed haulage emergency support scheme, which constituted an emergency support for the licensed haulage sector to address high fuel costs arising from the Ukrainian crisis. It was a temporary, targeted measure for the licensed haulage sector, taking into account the sector’s national strategic importance in enabling a functioning economy. In addition to being a key enabler of a functioning supply chain, the Government recognised that fuel represents up to 40% of cost inputs for road haulage operators. The scheme was renewed in 2023 and supports totalling €15.635 million were paid out of it.

Some €4.933 million will be allocated to the Coast Guard. The additional funding will be utilised to pay for cost increases due to inflation in the search and rescue contract as well as increases in standard costs in its operational services, such as fuel and electricity. The additional funding will also be utilised to pay for the appointment of additional staff by CHC as part of safety compliance measures under the fatigue risk management system.

Turning to the technical supplementary, to reallocate funds within subheads, €296 million is allocated to subhead A3, cycling and walking, for 2023. In addition to this funding, it is proposed to allocate €50 million from an underspend in public transport. The additional funds will go towards existing costs for 23 projects in Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and Galway, such as the sustainable transport bridge in Waterford city, the Royal Canal greenway, city-wide pedestrian crossings in Dublin, and the Proudstown Road to Trim Road cycle scheme in Meath. The fact that demand is once again very strong for active travel funding in 2023 demonstrates the success of this programme. Local authorities have built up real momentum on the ground in identifying, designing and delivering projects for investment, providing and enhancing safe, sustainable walking and cycling opportunities in cities and towns across the country.

On programme C, road networks and road safety, €18.6 million is allocated from subhead B5, public transport, to subhead C4, regional and local roads protection and renewal. As a result of the impact of ongoing significant inflation, the Department has been liaising with local authorities to establish the impact on maintenance and renewal work programmes and particularly on the important road strengthening programme. Feedback from local authorities has confirmed that the delivery of work programmes is under pressure because of increased costs. It is expected that this additional funding will assist local authorities in delivering approximately 170 km of additional road strengthening works.

Finally, I would note the reasons for the underspend in public transport leading to the above reallocation of funds. The main reasons are fewer electric buses being purchased in 2023 than originally planned; a delay in a payment related to the purchase of 41 intercity rail cars; the postponement of some expenditure on the Dublin Bus depot electrification programme until 2024; and a delay in the award of the signalling contract as part of the Cork area commuter rail. All of these investments are fully funded in the 2024 budget. I am happy to take any questions that the committee may have.

Deputy Martin Kenny

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. We have these Estimates every year and there is little we can do other than talk about where the money is going. We have no power to change things. Sometimes people looking in think we do but we do not. I would like to get a little more information regarding the reallocation of funds, particularly the public transport funding. I am someone who lives in the west. There was an announcement recently regarding rail in different areas and additional services being put in place. One of the places where there were no services added in was the Sligo to Dublin service. If I wanted to go home now, the last train went 15 minutes ago. That is the same for many people from the west working in Dublin. It is an issue that needs to be looked at. We need to have a rail service that works for everybody. We need to see additional investment, particularly in rail services across the country but our intercity services are as slow as they were 100 years ago. That is one issue. In addition, they are infrequent, overcrowded and not working for an awful lot of people. I would be concerned that there is such difficulty with it and yet so much money going astray. I would like to get a commitment from the Minister that there is going to be investment in that service and in all of those services, to connect the regions to each other and to connect them to the capital.

Given the week that is in it, I would raise the issues that came up last Thursday, particularly on Thursday night and the outrageous situation that happened. I pay tribute to the workers in Dublin Bus and the Luas and all the other public transport services across the State and particularly across Dublin who have had such a difficult time in the past few days. I also pay tribute to the Minister's own staff, who I am sure had a pretty sleepless night on Thursday trying to deal with it all. We need to get a reassurance that there is not going to be an impact on services, that the property that was destroyed, the buses and trams and all of that, will be replaced rapidly and that services will come back as quickly as possible.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I will start with that last point. The Deputy is absolutely right to focus on it. The Dáil debate this afternoon was very useful. There are so many different aspects to it. One of the aspects that is most important is the role of public transport workers. They had an incredibly difficult experience. A number of drivers were pulled out of the cabs in their buses and intimidated and threatened. That is totally unacceptable. The public service they provide is so important. The idea that we would burn our own buses is terribly self-defeating for all of us. Dublin Bus took the right decisions at the right times. There were difficult decisions as to when to withdraw the services. The drivers went as late and as long as they could to try to get people home and out of the city in difficult circumstances. They also had to get buses back to depots and that is often complicated. We have depots in the city centre close to where some of the incidents were taking place. That was quite a challenging operation. Dublin Bus did an excellent job and it was the same with Transdev and the Luas operators. We will be able to replace the three buses. I went down to see the Luas the following morning. It looks like the middle carriage will not be reparable so we will have to replace that but that will not affect service.

The Deputy made a point about looking for better service in public transport. I absolutely agree with him on that. He makes a strong and valid case. Take the Sligo line as an example. There have been enhancements on a number of services recently with later services to Cork and Galway and other services. We need to look at the Sligo line and see how we can do something similar because there is a very strong and popular demand for it. When we provide more frequency, the Irish transport public responds. The good news story is that our public transport numbers are way up and comparative to neighbouring countries we are significantly ahead of any others that are similar. We need to double down on that.

There was significant investment this year, particularly on the heavy rail network. Something like €500 million was spent on the main safety and maintenance, overhauling the capital investment in it. That is an important first step. You have to make it safe. We now need to go beyond that and invest in new rail and new bus infrastructure.

It is frustrating that it has taken us longer. A lot of the projects are being delayed in planning. I will be upfront and honest about the real difficulties in getting a range of different projects through a planning system that, for a variety of reasons that are well recorded elsewhere, has gone through a very difficult period in the last two years. We are finally coming out of that now and we expect to see a continuing reduction in the length of time it is taking to get planning decisions from An Bord Pleanála in particular. That will help us.

I mentioned the roll-out of those ICR carriages and some of them have been slightly late but they are here now. They are being prepared for service. They will go into service at the end of next year or middle of next year. What that will do is enable us to cascade carriages so we can use existing stock but deploy them in new services. We have a budget for that and that will make a significant difference particularly on the rail commuting site, including the Sligo line.

Deputy Martin Kenny

The other issue I want to talk to the Minister about is rural transport. While the Local Link service has been very successful in many areas and done a lot of great work and connected many people in rural Ireland, there are still gaps in it and there are still difficulties sometimes where it is oversubscribed and the bus is full when it gets to certain stops. There are also issues I see regularly in my own constituency, and I am sure it is the same everywhere else, in that a lot of the stops are basically at the side of the road or at a crossroads somewhere and there is no bus shelter or nowhere for people to stand. That is something that needs to be examined. I would like to get an assurance that with the additional money the Minister intends to spend on rural transport, one of the things he will be looking at is putting bus shelters and facilities like that in place.

Regarding the roads budget, the Minister mentioned road safety. He said that €18.6 million has been allocated for that.

The problem many of us have encountered is that in many areas there are rural and local roads that require work to be done. This is particularly at dangerous junctions and at dangerous series of bends and where there are uneven road surfaces. There are roads that are dangerous and work needs to be done. The local authorities have on many occasions applied to the Department looking for funding for that. They never get enough so they cannot do enough of those types of jobs. They are the areas where accidents and difficulties continuously take place. I would like an assurance that more money will be made available for local authorities for safety measures like that at dangerous junctions and places where collisions have happened in the past.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

First, the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan is a game-changer for rural public transport. It was phased out at the start of the last year when we introduced 38 new and enhanced services. This year, it is pretty much running along the lines of introducing a new service a week. I want to see that continuing and expanding. The response from the public has been phenomenal. The patronage has gone up by 112% in 2022 compared to the last pre-Covid-19 year. Last year, 110,000 vehicle kilometres were added. It is quite dramatic, particularly for a lot of younger people who are using the services and are availing of the lower costs for those under 26. We will extend that.

I agree with the Deputy and a certain frustration I have is that we have not yet put in the standardised signage, route information, web services, etc. There is a variety of ways of delivering these, most of them with Local Link, which provides a really good service, with Bus Éireann, with Go Ahead Ireland and a commercial operator. We need a synchronised, common standard, particularly for the bus stops. Sometimes with these new routes, people do not know where the bus is going to stop and that needs to improve. The success we have had will be all the more amplified when there is a wider understanding of the scale and range of new services. I agree with the Deputy and I will say this to the NTA and the local authorities. Without it becoming an incredibly expensive thing and turning bus stops into big planning applications and huge civil engineering works, it should not be beyond the bounds of possibility for us to look at an engineered solution to a standardised bus shelter system that can be put in quickly and at a relatively low cost. That is something I want to see being developed as well. In other locations, it might not be a stop, but there could be a plaque on the wall, or clear signage systems so that people know where the designated stopping points are. That is one of the most important next further developments.

Second, on the issue of the roadside, I again agree with the Deputy. The increase in the number of fatalities we have seen this year requires a response. That will be a variety of lowering average speed limits, better enforcement, using average-over-distance cameras, cameras in bus lanes and other mechanisms.

I have been speaking to TII about local roads, so that we look at the most difficult junctions or pinch-point areas to address black spots and provide additional funding for that in our roads programme. I had a meeting with the board of TII recently and I asked it to come back with mechanisms for us to address some of the safety issues in a more targeted way or with an engineered solution at a very local junction level. Junctions are where most accidents happen, so they are areas we need to target in particular.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Will funding be made available for that?

Deputy Eamon Ryan

Yes, we have funding within our overall programme. I will be looking for additional funding. There is still funding to be allocated. The summer economic statement provides some of the corporate tax surplus and we are looking to reallocate some of that. Yes, I am looking to provide it. This year, recognising that inflation had eroded some of the road spending we were providing, we provided a top-up of money on local roads. The first thing about safety is having a good surface and therefore the maintenance of surfaces is a key first requirement in ensuring safety. We already put in an additional €18 million this year to counter some of the inflationary impacts.

Deputy Martin Kenny

The issues in regard to road safety are paramount. That really needs to be where the focus has to happen, particularly in the context of the tragedies on the roads in the last 12 to 18 months. The difficulty is that the safest roads in the country are usually our motorways. It is more on primary and smaller country roads where most of the accidents happen or where there are difficulties. They are much more difficult to monitor and it is practically impossible to put those kinds of stationary cameras in place on them to check speeds, etc. It is very difficult to do that. There needs to be an emphasis on coming up with measures to ensure those roads are made safer, as well as encouraging people to use them more safely.

Finally, I wanted to circle back to the issue of public transport, particularly in Dublin, and our bus services. I, as well as many people, noticed that many of the staff who drive the buses and trams, etc., are people from outside the country. When various agencies come before the committee, they tell us they cannot get staff and they have to advertise abroad to try to get staff. It would be a very valid message for the Department to put out in order to make the public aware that if people from abroad did not come here to do that work, those services would not exist. That is something we need to say loud and clear to people. There is this narrative that goes around that somehow people who come from abroad to Ireland are a kind of a burden on the State or are doing the State some disservice. In fact, it is the direct opposite. All of us, both in opposition and in government, need to make that very clear.

In many cases, it is not the very highly paid positions that we need workers for. It is for jobs such as cleaners and other basic jobs that would be considered to be low paid. These are not jobs for high-fliers. We cannot get people to take up those jobs and we need to get people to come from abroad to do them. It would be very useful if the Department made it clear to everyone that we should be respectful to those who drive the buses and trams. When I speak to the unions and people there, they tell me of racial abuse and of people being extremely rude and obnoxious to them.

The Minister mentioned today the tradition of saying, “Thank you” to the bus driver when you get off. Unfortunately, many people have gotten to the stage where they do not do that anymore. It is the opposite. We need to check ourselves as a society in that regard. This narrative has created huge tensions and difficulties, which brought us to where we were last Thursday night. We all have a responsibility to push back on that.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I agree with the Deputy. I was at one of the depots recently. I cannot remember the exact figure, but I think the manager said that people of 68 different nationalities are driving our Dublin buses. That is all to the good. As the Deputy said, getting drivers has been our biggest problem. This is also the case for mechanics. There is a real shortage of mechanics. We need the figures out there and watch out for those who want to turn their hand to maintaining our bus fleet. I absolutely agree; it is important that we hold onto that perspective in these uncertain times and that we do not allow an alternative narrative to develop. It is not true; a huge service is done by those drivers and mechanics. Wherever they come from, they are serving us.

Deputy James O'Connor

From the outset, I apologise to the Minister, the clerk and my Oireachtas colleagues, because I just caught up at another meeting. I want to start off by agreeing with the points made by Deputy Kenny and the Minister around what happened last Thursday in Dublin, which was appalling. As part of the violence on O’Connell Street and other areas of the city, public transport infrastructure was targeted. Needless damage was done to public infrastructure that each and every one of us relies on in our daily lives. It is for getting to and from our places of work. It is for children going to and from their places of education. It is for university and higher education students getting to and from their places of education. From the outset, we must strongly condemn what happened. I welcome the statement in that regard and I wish to be associated with other comments made.

One key finding from Thursday is how, through the allocation of funding, we can create a better system to warn the public transport operators of Dublin Bus and the Luas, which had been caught up in this situation, about the potential outbreak of violence like this.

We are very lucky in Ireland that this type of thing does not occur that often. Is there a system in place, if a similar situation occurs, to instruct drivers of buses and Luas tram operators to evacuate an area? We saw the tensions boil during the day and what took place has resulted in millions of euro worth of damage. I understand hybrid buses cost in the region of €600,000 and it will take a while to establish the full cost of the damage to the Luas tram. I am conscious about how we can improve our capacity to react to situations appropriately. On Thursday, for the drivers and staff involved, it must have been an horrific situation. As I said, occurrences like this have been incredibly rare in our recent history and decades go by without an occurrence of such violence, which we are very cognisant of, but I get the impression that on O'Connell Street that night, for a number of hours, it was a very precarious situation for the Dublin Bus workers, the Luas tram operators and any passengers on board. Once again, I reiterate that violence on our streets is a very rare event.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I agree with the sentiments expressed by the Deputy. I talked to the management of Dublin Bus after the event and I have a sense that they had fairly good information. They closely monitored what was happening, and because there were so many buses around the city drivers were able to report in and share information. There are very extensive cameras on all our buses, so it is not as if drivers are disconnected. Decisions were made in the final hour to withdraw services on the basis of real-life evidence of what was happening. It was a difficult call in terms of whether services should have been pulled earlier. If that had been done, then many people would not have been able to get out of a difficult situation. I think they made the right call even though it was, as the Deputy said, very difficult for certain drivers.

In everything we do with the transport revolution, we need sensors, remote monitoring, and use of digital technology to improve services and share information about services. We have a lot of work to do on improving the real-time information systems so passengers know what is happening as well. Incorporated within that, as we upgrade our software technology to improve that, we should also be able to give passengers better early warning notices and an awareness of what is happening. I agree with the Deputy that it is not that they are not connected but I think we can, and should, improve that.

Deputy James O'Connor

Yes.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

It will be one of the things coming out of that.

Deputy James O'Connor

I wish to make a suggestion. The United Kingdom, for example, has Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, COBRA, which provides a set cabinet structure for reacting and the UK Government can meet in crisis and bring in the relevant stakeholders. In Ireland, there are systems in place to cope with weather events that are under the remit of the Department of Defence, which was changed previously from local government. While I know the Minister cannot answer my query here, I suggest that it would be prudent to create a similar unit to COBRA in this country after what has happened.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I will give an experience of where I saw it happening. I have been in the national emergency control centre. Wherever we need to go into that, we obviously will. I will give a more local example with which the Deputy is bound to be familiar and it was interesting. I was in Midleton after the flooding and visited the fire station, which was used as a control centre. I spent an hour or so in the control centre and watched the work being done by staff from the various agencies of the State, including the local authority, fire brigade, Met Éireann, various Departments, Garda, etc. My sense is often what one wants is a local co-ordination meeting point where one pulls together all the services and online technologies now give people that ability. Interestingly, we were able to compare notes with different locations on what was happening, etc. Having seen examples like that in operation recently makes me think that it does not always have to be Kildare Street and on the ground is very useful.

Deputy James O'Connor

I agree. Obviously flooding is very separate from an outbreak of violence, or people who are intent on causing damage versus reacting to a very serious natural disaster. I appreciate that the Minister visited Midleton.

The Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy, CMATS, is the first project of significance. The Minister referred to the strategy in his opening remarks. The strategy is a huge positive and it is brilliant to see the level of progress made. We are anxious to see the construction of the proposed new train stations. For me, the rail aspect is the pinnacle of CMATS. The flow platform being done in Cork, at Kent Station, is being advanced. The dual tracking to Midleton is being advanced. Members of the public are having a very strong and robust discussion about potential future extensions of the rail network in the east Cork area to connect Youghal, Mogeely and Killeagh, where previous stations existed before that line was closed. The Midleton-Youghal greenway is under construction but we are very anxious to establish the most up-to-date timeline on the strategy and the expenditure in the areas I mentioned.

Finally, I compliment the fundamentally decent work being done by Mr. Jim Meade, Mr. A.J. Cronin and the team at Irish Rail. Progress is being made. It is slow and we have to deal with An Bord Pleanála and other planning challenges, but this above all else will make a significant change to the types of commuting seen in the Cork metropolitan area. Currently, we rely heavily on cars, but this project has the potential to revolutionise our transport infrastructure.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I agree with the Deputy. The investment in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick is vital. The national planning framework calls for better balanced regional development. Look at each of those cities. In Waterford, we are moving the train station and building a new bridge. In Limerick, we are reopening the Shannon-Foynes line. We have a great deal of work to do in Galway - the Oranmore passing loop and twin tracking.

The project in Cork is probably the biggest example. It was the one that got prioritised funding from the Recovery and Resilience Fund.

Deputy James O'Connor

Yes.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

When European funding was available, we deliberately submitted the Cork metropolitan rail project because we wanted to signify its importance.

Deputy James O'Connor

The timeline in respect of the station is the most important matter. I would like to establish that. People have a great interest in this and I do not mean anything negative with this question.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

The first thing that needs to be done is the twin track from Midleton into Kent.

Deputy James O'Connor

Yes.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

A large amount of signalling work needs to be done. The Chair is aware of the importance of that work. The other key initial development has to do with being able to run through Kent Station. The platform is there-----

Deputy James O'Connor

I described that at the outset. I am trying to establish something else. I do not want to cut across the Minister.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I will answer the question now. A new passing platform is needed at Kent Station. That element will be up and running in 2026. Funding for it will amount to approximately €185 million. The stations will follow. In my mind, it will not be long after. I attended the opening of a DART station the other day. Strangely, stations are not as complex or difficult as some of the signalling and other elements as long as there are basic services in place. I hope to give signals about where stations will be located far earlier so that, even in advance of them opening, developers will be able to build housing. All of this has to happen this decade – the likes of Blackpool, Monard, Blarney and the various other locations being discussed. Tivoli will take a bit longer, although it is one of the best potential areas because it has a large land bank and we could have 10,000 people living there when we move the-----

Deputy James O'Connor

Containers.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

-----dock activity. There are some difficult aspects to that, though.

Deputy James O'Connor

That matter arose during one of my meetings. I have a great deal of stakeholder engagement with the Port of Cork. It has done fundamentally positive work in improving the facilities at Ringaskiddy. The Minister has been down to see them.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

Yes.

Deputy James O'Connor

The Port of Cork officials were complimentary of the Government’s engagement. However, they stated that there was a great urgency around the M28 project. I wish to move on to road projects, as it is important that we discuss them. The M28 project was one of the barriers to what the Minister just described. It remains so. The officials did not knock the Government in any shape or form, but they acknowledged the problem. If the road is delivered, there will be a shift in facilities from Tivoli out to the Ringaskiddy site. Subsequent phases of development will then need to take place in Tivoli, which people are ready to do. It was worth highlighting this issue.

The Minister knows that my next topic is an emotive one in my constituency, and it was raised with him during his recent visit to east Cork. It is the Midleton-Youghal scheme, or as locals know it, the Castlemartyr and Killeagh bypasses. There has been a major congestion issue.

People often speak about the need for bypasses and road investment. I know the Minister understands the need to bypass congested villages. Much of this is intercity traffic. It is haulage and cars going to and from boats and ferries from Cork and, indeed, Wexford as well. We are very much pushing this as quickly as we can.

I was a little bit concerned that Adare seemed to be getting the immediate prioritisation from Cabinet for very understandable reasons. I would ask why we have been waiting almost 11 months from when the road funding was announced in early February for the sign-off of yet another feasibility study, which is obviously required through the statutory steps. However, 11 months is a bit ridiculous. We need to get this project out and a design consultant appointed in order to allow it to advance. I do not want to go down the road of sending freedom of information, FOI, requests to the Minister's Department to try to establish what is really going on with it. However, I am getting to my wits' end in terms of why it has taken so long for that to be advanced. Obviously, I am conscious that we could have an election next year. We are definitely going to have an election before March 2025. The public deserve and demand progress, as do I as their representative. Could the Minister please give me some insight as to where that project is at?

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I am happy to do so. As I said to the Deputy, publicly in the Dáil and elsewhere, I am absolutely committed. The priority needs to be on bypasses around the country, such as Castlemartyr and Killeagh, in places that are choked with through traffic. That is the first priority. To be honest, from my side, the funding is provided there. I am just as keen as the Deputy to get that feasibility study done. The only thing I will be asking the local authorities, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and others is whether we can accelerate and deliver it as quickly as we can.

On the other two projects, I expect Ringaskiddy to be able to go to tender very shortly. The Deputy is right; we cannot move the docks out of Cork city and Tivoli until we get that. That is going through the planning system and is due to go to the tendering system. I expect that to happen.

On the question of why it is the Adare project versus others, it was through planning. Going back to what I said earlier, the biggest obstacle or problem we have is the Deputy's frustration with the length of time in terms of the permitting, planning and design process. It is the same in all road and public transport projects. We have a spending code and the development of projects is unacceptably slow. We have to accelerate. I do not blame any one engineer or official, but we have created a system that is not quick in terms of delivering infrastructure.

Deputy James O'Connor

This is my fear. Any public representative who cares about a capital project wants to see that it gets the Humphrey Appleby treatment by the Department and relevant State bodies. All we want is to push it along and get it done. When it takes 12 months to effectively get paperwork done, it is very obviously going to be the case that questions are going to arise from that.

I am also conscious that we had devastating flooding in east Cork. There is a need for us to basically call out the fact that the N25 has been shut on a number of occasions over the last decade. There is more traffic on a single lane on the main Cork to Waterford road. There are two lanes of traffic going to and from Cork and Waterford. There is more traffic on them than there is on the Galway to Limerick motorway and dual carriageway and the Waterford to Dublin road. We are doing that on an ordinary national route, which is of huge importance to the local economy.

I am not trying to knock the Minister or be critical of the Department. However, I do not know what I need to do to show the Minister how bad the congestion is there. It takes 15 or minutes. It is sad to say it, but this has cost people's lives. There have very sadly been multiple fatal accidents on that stretch of road. In addition to that, ambulances that need to go to and from Cork University Hospital, CUH, and hospitals in Cork from throughout east Cork and west Waterford get caught up there. I am begging the Minister to try to do what he can to push it on.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I am very keen to see it go as fast as it can. I will say one thing in terms of the issues of flooding, design of roads and so on. It can bring complexities. We might look at what happened on the Dunkettle roundabout. That took quite a long time because it was dealing with an area that historically floods. My understanding with Castlemartyr is that someone would obviously take one side, but it is traditionally quite boggy ground. That is one of the issues. I agree with the Deputy, however. Our design solutions need to come quicker and then go through the process.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Steven Matthews)

I thank Deputy O'Connor. Deputy Kenny has a supplementary question on the Supplementary Estimate.

Deputy Martin Kenny

I want to come back in on one issue. The Minister mentioned bypasses and particularly some of our road networks that need work in that regard. I am conscious that the Minister was in County Sligo a number of months ago. We were disappointed on that day when he told us there would not be funding for the N17. I would like an update on that. The Minister mentioned that there would be funding for various aspects of that route where bypasses would be needed along with upgrades and improvement works. Personally, I think it needs a new road. It is in a very dangerous state. We need to get some indication as to what progress can be made. Indeed, I understand some progress has been made on the Carrick-on-Shannon bypass, but people are still waiting to know what the issue is there and when we will we see work happening. There is huge congestion in Carrick-on-Shannon. It is almost every evening of the week now but particularly on a Friday and towards the weekends.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I thank the Deputy. There are so many projects at which we need to look. Investing in roads that improve towns and bring bypasses will really bring benefit. I can give two examples. My Department will be directing funding at a local road across Garryvoe that will connect the university with the main national road to Dublin. That is an example of a project that brings real strategic benefit to a local environment. Similarly, Carrick-on-Shannon is exactly the sort of project we need to accelerate as fast as we can because that town is being choked by traffic. It is another complex one because there is quite a significant flooding issue as people come into Carrick-on-Shannon from the eastern side. However, that absolutely needs to be progressed. Those are the sorts of projects we need to advance. There are so many more and that is a difficulty. When we look at all the different ranges of projects, there are approximately €100 billion worth of projects in development and planning.

We have to prioritise and some of the prioritisation should be through bypasses because we can get a lot of bang for our buck by doing 5 km or 10 km bypasses, such as Carrick-on-Shannon, which transform the towns and improves safety and journey times. We can often then look further down the line. There are other examples. Tipperary town is another example of where we could do a bypass and if we are able at a later stage to upgrade a longer length of road, we can do so. We do the bypass first, however. That is where we need to invest.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Are there issues, which is something we hear, in that when a project goes to the Department, one section has to be done before work can start on the next section and before it can go to the next stage? There is this delaying situation whereby Transport Infrastructure Ireland feels it is not getting the kind of flow that used to be there to get these projects moving faster resulting in delay after delay.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I do not like delay. Time costs money and, therefore, it is better to do things quickly. There has been a strategic shift, however. We have a programme for Government, which is allocating 2:1 in favour of public transport versus roads and 10% of the budget to active travel. I would argue the case for that is because the public transport has been underinvested in.

I will go back to what the Deputy said at the very start about the need for the likes of the Sligo rail line. We just issued that rail order on the Cork metropolitan project, which was the first rail order in ten years. It is a real problem that we have not invested in public transport at all really at the commensurate scale. I would argue and justify that because public transport needs to catch up.

It is not that we do not spend on roads. The Carrick-on-Shannon project, the Scramoge to Ballaghaderreen road and the Adare bypass are not inexpensive, nor is the Macroom bypass we just opened. They are all significant projects, but we need public transport because that has been underinvested in for decades.

Deputy Martin Kenny

The issue I am trying to draw attention to is that when a decision is made to invest in a particular piece of infrastructure or particular road or bypass that will move ahead, instead of moving with the pace one would expect, it happens stage by stage. There is frustration there.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

That is the public spending code.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Yes.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I am equally frustrated.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Is there no solution to that?

Deputy Eamon Ryan

There is a significant review. The Department of public expenditure and reform realises the situation. Some of it is the result of the financial crash. We have created an elaborate gate system through which people have to go for the likes of the children's hospital. Someone said to me that going from idea to completion takes many different permissions. The situation is overly elaborate and is costing us too much. It is causing significant delays.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Is work being done to change that?

Deputy Eamon Ryan

It is, and it needs to happen quicker.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Steven Matthews)

No other members are indicating, so I will make some closing comments. I have never heard as much discussion of the need for public transport as I have in the past three years. It is not only being discussed in the Oireachtas but is also being discussed in council chambers. I have also heard it from the travelling public. Estimates are often a good time to examine the expanse of work that goes on in the Minister's Department and in the National Transport Authority, NTA, and acknowledge, for example, the electric bus fleet that is being rolled out. That was not happening before. Some 41 railcars were delivered at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022. They are now coming into service. There is a framework agreement for 600 electric units. The DART+ scheme is going through various stages of planning. Under the BusConnects scheme, one extra or enhanced service is being rolled out per week, as the Minister said. That is transforming the options for people in rural areas to get to places they could not get to before. Towns that never had buses now have them.

I agree with the Minister that the planning system is frustrating for those projects. It seems we need to get things absolutely correct before we can move ahead. I have often been of the mind that for projects such as those, which chop and change a little, we should get to a 90% level of certainty and allow them to go ahead. We have experts working across infrastructure, construction and transport planning in this country. They can make the necessary changes as we move ahead.

I recently met representatives of the NTA. They told me that one of the biggest issues we have is driver recruitment, training and retention. There are also issues with mechanics. We have a fleet that is in operation for 20 or 21 hours per day. We need good preventative maintenance schemes and good mechanics to keep the fleet reliable and providing the service the public deserve and should expect. The Minister referenced heavy rail maintenance. That is critical for reliability, journey times and the comfort of those journeys.

I acknowledge the work that goes on across the Department and for active travel in our local authorities. Funding for active travel came in in the first year of this Government's term. We provided the resources for it. I can see how it would take a bit of time to get up to scale and start running and gelling, but we are now starting to see that. I hope we continue that trajectory in the coming years.

Councillors and Members of the Oireachtas have visited the Dutch Cycling Embassy, etc., and that is a model we want to replicate. I can see us delivering that over the next five to ten years. We know that transport projects are slow to deliver but they do endure. Investing in rail is investing in an asset that will last for 80 or 100 years, with minor tweaks along the way, and capacity can be improved as it is needed.

I thank the Minister for bringing forward the Estimates. I did not ask any questions but only made comments. Does the Minister wish to make any closing comments? No. I thank him and his officials for attending and engaging with the committee.