Tairgim: "Go léifear an Bille don Dara Uair".
Cúis mór ghearáin is díospóireachta isea an méid cáin a íocann gach éinne san tír seo. Tá an bhail chéanna le feiscint ins na slite ina cáintear na meastacháin bhliantúla agus na liúntaisí airgid a bhronann an Rialtas ar roinnt de na seirbhísí Stáit. Ach mar is eol dúinn go léir, sé curam an Rialtais an Státchiste a úsáid ar leas muintir na hÉireann uile agus ní féidir leis an Rialtas gach aon duine do shásamh i gcónaí. Easpa airgid atá ina mbunchúis leis an tóraíocht atá idir lámhaibh ag an Rialtas chun na costaisí Stáit do laghdú. Sé sin an chúis le díscaoileadh Iomprais Bhaile Átha Cliath.
Ní obair in aisce a bhí ar siúl ag an Iompras, mar leis an mBille atá rómhainn béimíd ag aistriú an chuid is mó de cumhachtaí agus feidhmeanna an Iomprais go údaráistí poiblí eile mar an Garda Síochána agus na h-údaráisí áitiúla. Beidh orthu siúd obair an Iomprais a leanúint. Leathnaíonn an Bille roinnt de na cumh-achtaí atá ag an Iompras ní h-amháin do Bhardas Bhaile Átha Cliath agus Comhairle Chontae Átha Cliath ach do na h-údairáisí áitiúla timpeall an tíre. In aon acht leis sin tá Meitheal Iompair Bhaile Átha Cliath le h-athbhunú.
At the outset, I would like to express my appreciation to Deputies Deasy and Quinn for the approaches they made and clarification they sought in advance of our discussion here today. I appreciate the interest they have taken in the Bill and in other personal matters.
The main purposes of the Bill are:
To provide for the dissolution of the Dublin Transport Authority; to re-assign most of the Authority's functions to other bodies; to repeal the Dublin Transport Authority Act, 1986, which is the legislative basis for the Authority; and to extend the scope of some of the provisions, which had been confined to the DTA functional area, to the country as a whole.
The measure is necessary as a consequence of the Government decision that no funds would be available for the Authority from next year. The decision to dissolve the Authority was not taken lightly. As Members of the House are aware, after the Government took office it was appparent that taxation levels and Exchequer borrowings were excessive and that a reduction in State expenditure was urgently required, if the overall situation were not to disimprove further. Examination of expenditure was undertaken in all Departments. Every single area of spending was scrutinised. It is fair to say that we would be facing a long term serious crisis in the public finances, if we had not tackled these problems right across the board. In this process, we had to recognise that many services, which has been taken for granted by the public, were no longer affordable. It is regretted that the DTA had to be chosen for dissolution, but this was unavoidable.
In implementing the Government decision, through the Bill before the House, we have succeeded in preserving most of the DTA functions through transferring them to other authorities. In addition, the Government decided that some of the functions could be extended with advantage beyond Dublin to the whole country and this we are providing for in the Bill. Traffic management functions of the Authority, which are so vital for traffic flows in the Dublin area, are being transferred to a re-constituted Dublin Transportation Task Force. With these changes it is possible to continue to pursue most of the important tasks set for the Dublin Transport Authority.
Some have argued that the amount of money involved in keeping the DTA in place was so small that the decision to dissolve it could have been avoided. For 1987 the Authority's funding comprised two State grants-in-aid, one for current expenditure totalling £300,000 and £365,000 for capital works for traffic management measures.
Savings from the abolition of the Authority cannot be judged on the basis of the 1987 allocations but on the likely expenditure of a fully staffed Authority. It was envisaged that in time the staff would need to increase to at least 20 people. On this basis the savings on the Authority's operating costs would be of the order of £500,000 per annum and could be expected to increase with the passage of years.
Again, some have said that it is a pity to sacrifice the Authority for the sake of half a million pounds a year. I acknowledge that the amount involved is not huge but the decision reflects the depth and extent of the financial problems. It is all the savings, including the small ones, which collectively will make the Exchequer savings worthwhile. If we were to follow the advice of our critics in all of the areas where cuts are being implemented, we would be failing to meet our overall responsibilities to the people of Ireland. I wish to emphasise that, while the Authority are being dissolved, most of the functions of the Authority will be carried out by other agencies. There will not be a vacuum.
The dissolution of the Dublin Transport Authority in no sense calls into question the quality and value of the work undertaken by the Chairman and members of the Authority and their chief executive and staff. The volume of work handled and carried out by the Authority demonstrates the dedication and commitment to the very onerous tasks which made up their mandate. In the traffic management area they actively tackled such matters as disruptive roadworks by intervention at administrative level, parking and other traffic measures, including the funding of capital projects and the preparation of by-laws in relation to tow-away services. The Authority's by-laws in relation to parking controls came into force on 11 December last and they bring the "business hours" for Dún Laoghaire into line with the rest of the Dublin area. The Authority made submissions to the planning authorities on the Dublin City Development Plan, the Custom House Docks Development Authority plans and other major planning applications. The Authority also submitted to me their recommendations on the Bus Átha Cliath and Iarnród Éireann applications for increases in fares.
This is not an exhaustive list but gives a general view of the work carried out by the Authority during their short life. I wish to record my appreciation of the Authority's efforts in the past year and the efficient and effective way in which they began to come to grips with the tasks they faced.
The Dublin Transport Authority Act, 1986 provided an extensive mandate for the DTA. The Act provided for the activation of the various functions by Ministerial Order. It was decided that at the outset the Authority could not be expected to undertake all the functions in the legislation straight away. As a result, functions in relation to the responsibility for the traffic warden service, licensing of passenger road services, regulation of public service vehicles and licensing of public car parks were not activated.
I circulated an Explanatory Memorandum with the Bill but, nonetheless, there is a need to give the House some explanations and additional information. A simple revocation of the Dublin Transport Authority Act, 1986 is not involved. There is a need to provide for continuity of most of the functions contained in that Act and these are being transferred to the Garda Síochána and the local authorities. Indeed, in most cases the Bill restores functions which had been transferred from them to the DTA. As the DTA mandate covered the Dublin area only, the transfer of functions is limited accordingly.
Some of the provisions in the 1986 Act, for example, those in relation to the control of roadworks, the immobilisation of vehicles parked illegally through wheelclamps and the like, the control of vehicles by bollards and ramps and the control of access to and egress from construction sites, were new and the opportunity is being taken in the Bill, in section 9 to be precise, to provide for the application of the provisions to the country as a whole. In relation to the co-ordination of roadworks, for instance, the Bill in fact is more comprehensive than in the existing legislation. A definition for emergency roadworks is now included in addition to an enabling provision for a local authority to issue directions even in such emergency cases, in order to ensure speedy completion of works. These provisions will form part of the road traffic legislative code and the Minister for the Environment will be generally responsible for their administration and for the making of relevant regulations. These provisions represent additional functions for the local authorities and should be valuable in improving traffic flows in many areas.
Decisions in relation to individual road ramps and bollards and the control of roadworks will be the responsibility of the local authorities, who will also make the by-laws in relation to control and access to and from construction sites. Regulations for giving full effect to the provisions in relation to immobilisation devices will be settled between the Ministers for the Environment and Justice. The extension of these functions to local authorities is a worthwhile development because traffic and transport problems are not peculiar to Dublin.
Sections 2 to 6 of the Bill provide for the dissolution of the Authority, the transfer of assets and liabilities from them to the Minister, the continuation of the Authority's staff pension scheme, the method of dealing with legal proceedings to which they are a party and the exemption of the Minister from stamp duy on property or rights transferred from the Authority.
Section 7 of the Bill re-enacts the provisions for dealing with persons who fail to or refuse to pay fares on public service vehicles. This provision, which represents an improvement on the existing provision in 82 (9) of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, will apply, in accordance with the section, to the country as a whole. It is hoped that these provisions will improve the general environment for public passenger vehicle drivers as regards the collection of fares.
Section 8 transfers back to the commissioner of the Garda Síochána the functions of the Authority in relation to such matters as taxi stands, omnibus stopping places and stands, control of traffic and pedestrians, the parking of vehicles and control of traffic signs.
Section 10 continues in force the onthe-spot fines system and penalites in relation to false declarations in connection with applications for the granting of licences, plates and certificates of vehicles.
Section 11 re-enacts section 27 of the 1986 Act, with minor amendments in the interest of clarification, in relation to the provision and maintenance of busways. These could become very important means of improving traffic flows in congested areas.
Section 12 provides for the extension of the functions of traffic wardens and increases from £20 to £150 the maximum penalty for certain offences such as the destruction or removal of notices attached to vehicles by traffic wardens.
Now, I come to the question of the DTA functions which are not being continued. They relate principally to advisory type powers in a transport planning context. The need for such powers has been reduced by the fact that a major priority function assigned to the Authority, that is to advise on the public transport needs of the areas to the west of the city, has been overtaken by the Government decision that no further consideration should be given to the possible extension of the electrified rail system to these areas. This decision was taken because the substantial cost involved — running to many hundreds of millions of pounds — could not be contemplated having regard to the state of the public finances for the foreseeable future. As Members of the House are aware, CIE have been requested to prepare transport investment plans for the Dublin area, involving only bus-based options or diesel rail services on existing lines.
The Dublin Transportation Task Force are being reconstituted, on a non-statutory basis as before, to take up the DTA role in general transport and traffic matters. Thus the valuable work of the DTA in this area need not be lost and can indeed be built upon. The new task force will include representatives of the Department of Tourism and Transport and the Department of the Environment, the local authorities, the Garda and CIE.
The original task force, who preceded the DTA, were responsible for the introduction of bus lanes and stricter parking controls and the funding of specialised traffic signalling and bus priority schemes. They also sponsored the development of the Dublin traffic management model, a computer-based traffic simulation package used to assess the effects of new traffic management projects. This work has been developed further by the DTA. The reconstituted task force will assume the functions of the Authority in these matters.
The task force will be responsible for devising traffic management schemes, setting on an annual basis the priority traffic management activities for implementation and for allocating funds for the traffic management schemes to supplement the investments of the local authorities in this field.
The 1988 Estimates for my Department provide for an allocation of £165,000 for traffic management purposes by the task force. There will be scope for the task force to comment on development plans prepared by the Dublin local authorities in so far as the plans have a bearing on traffic management.
The dissolution of the Authority is a disappointment to many but the situation would be considerably worse if the activities undertaken by the Authority were also to be terminated. That is not happening and careful attention has been given to preserving, in so far as is possible within existing resources, the continuation of the work in hand. I wish to conclude by renewing my expression of appreciation for the work of the Chairman and members of the Authority and their staff.
I commend the Bill to the House.