Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 6 Oct 1998

Vol. 494 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - DTO Short-Term Action Plan.

Ms O. Mitchell

I wish to concentrate on the two aspects of the Dublin Transportation Office recommendation which give me most cause for concern. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Jacob, for coming to the House but I regret that neither the Minister for the Environment and Local Government nor the Minister for Public Enterprise saw fit to attend.

This is an emergency short-term action plan. It is not the solution to congestion but merely an attempt to identify what is necessary to hold the chaos at bay until the year 2000. It is an attempt to prevent Dublin traffic congestion from crossing the line from mere chaos to total breakdown.

Last April the Minister for Public Enterprise told me in this House that she expected to have that plan on her desk by the end of the month. It did not arrive by the end of the month, although it had been drafted by the Dublin Transportation Office, because the transportation office and the agencies which comprise it could not agree on either its content or its presentation.

When the plan finally arrived on the Government's desk towards the end of July it languished there throughout the summer. It finally saw the light of day last Tuesday, the day before the Dáil resumed and when I had tabled a parliamentary question on the Government's response to it. Would the plan still be lying on a Government desk if I had not tabled that question?

The handling of this emergency plan gives a whole new meaning to our understanding of the word "emergency". It highlights yet again the complete inadequacy of the structures we have in place to deliver a quality public transport service in Dublin. We have a multiplicity of agencies, all with their own priorities and all reporting to a variety of Ministers, with no single person with political responsibility for the delivery of a decent transport service.

This is evidenced, if evidence were needed, in my constituency every morning. The Knocklyon and Rathfarnham areas are now famous because they feature every morning on AA Roadwatch. Traffic chaos reigns and has become a way of life. It is a genuine crisis which requires a co-ordinated and urgent response. Instead, we have paralysis of the traffic and paralysis of the of the agencies which might be in a position to respond.

When the mere preparation of the plan overran by six months, what confidence can we have that its actual implementation will do any better, particularly given the time scale envisaged if the plan is to be effective and chaos avoided? The year 2000 seems a very tight time scale when we have already wasted six months.

I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Jacob, will read me the list of measures in the plan for which funding is available. I agree that much of the plan is being funded, which I welcome despite my realisation that the funding came only as a result of the reallocation of funding due to the complete mess made of the Luas project.

However, I want the Minister of State to address the fundamental recommendation of the Dublin Transportation Office that operational funding should be provided for public transport on an ongoing annual basis. This is the measure on which the success of the entire plan depends — every element of the plan depends on the provision of ongoing operational subvention.

Dublin Bus requires additional buses but if the Minister of State were to tell me tonight that Dublin Bus could buy another 200 buses in the morning, I could tell him that those buses would lie idle in Dublin Bus garages — as they have before — unless Dublin Bus was given a subvention to make its operation viable. Unless the Government accepts the fundamental principle——

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

The Deputy's time is up.

Ms O. Mitchell

——that the capacity of Dublin Bus's public transport service must be dictated by the level of passenger demand and the abolition of the need for Dublin Bus to cover its cost, this plan is going nowhere. At the moment, Dublin Bus is doing all——

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I draw the Deputy's attention to the fact that she had five minutes.

Ms O. Mitchell

I will conclude now — but I think I was a little late starting. At the moment, the people in Dublin Bus are bending their minds trying to deal with the problem of buses and timetables.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Standing Orders oblige me to call the Deputy after five minutes. She has had five minutes on her feet. I call the Minister.

Ms O. Mitchell

I ask the Minister to respond to the problem I raised.

Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise (Mr. Jacob)

I thank Deputy Mitchell for raising this important issue. The Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, is out of the country on important Government business. I have no doubt that, but for that, she would be here to do the Deputy the courtesy of dealing with the matter. I hope I can be of help.

The short-term action plan proposed capital investment of about £171 million over the next two years and some £146 million had already been committed. The DTO short-term action plan builds on the work done to date in implementing the strategy of the Dublin Transportation Initiative and contains a range of short-term measures which can be implemented between now and 2000.

They are designed to tackle approximately 49,000 excess trips by car in the morning peak across the greater Dublin area by 1999. These have arisen from a combination of two principal factors: unprecedented economic growth which, in turn, has led to much greater than expected traffic growth and, slower than anticipated implementation of major elements of the DTI strategy, including major road projects, Luas and quality bus corridors. The main focus of the short-term action plan is to transfer about 37,000 of these 49,000 excess car trips to other modes of transport, with 33,000 going to public transport and 4,000 to cycling.

The Deputy's particular interest relates to public transport, where the plan includes measures designed to provide up to 21,600 extra bus passenger trips and an extra 11,300 suburban rail passenger trips in the peak period. While the plan has only recently been published, the need for action had been anticipated and most of the public transport recommendations of the DTO action plan have already been approved for implementation.

Virtually all the recommended suburban rail and DART programmes have been approved for speedy introduction. As part of the reallocation of the Luas EU assistance, approval has been given for the acquisition of an additional 50 buses, at a total cost of £8.5 million. These buses are expected to be delivered in autumn 1999. They will be used on the quality bus corridors and will increase morning rush hour capacity by 3,500.

It is worth pointing out that this is the first occasion on which the European Commission has agreed to co-finance the purchase of buses. Furthermore, and again for the first time, the balance of the funding for the acquisition of these buses is to be provided by the Exchequer through the normal Estimates/budget process.

There has been no complacency on the Government's part. We ensured that the DTI strategy was kept under review and have proceeded quickly to implement measures to remedy shortfalls which have been identified.

Bus Átha Cliath will also acquire, from its own resources, more than 120 double decker buses in 1998 and 1999 to replace an equivalent number of old single and double decker buses. This will increase capacity by some 2,450 passenger trips. The action plan also proposes that Bus Átha Cliath subcontracts school bus services. This would release buses for use in the morning peak commuter services and provide capacity for an extra 4,200 passenger trips. This measure is part of the wider restructuring negotiations which are being considered by the Labour Court at present.

The DTO short-term action plan also identified a requirement for 100 extra buses and the need for additional State subvention to support expanded peak hour bus services. These recommendations will be considered by the Government as part of the Estimates/budget process.

The various initiatives to increase bus capacity are being taken in tandem with the acceleration of the quality bus corridor network. This network will be extended to 12 routes with the addition of a QBC to Ballymun. Additional funding of over £9.4 million has been provided as part of the reallocation of the Luas aid. This means that approximately £12 million will be allocated in DTO traffic management grants in 1999 and 2000 for the implementation of QBCs.

It is essential that CIE maximises the contribution it can make from its own resources to funding these requirements. It is clear that substantial additional investment in public transport is required, not only in Dublin but also in the mainline rail network. With this in mind the Minister for Public Enterprise met the CIE chairman earlier today and asked him to take urgent action to ensure that the company's property assets, which are surplus to public transport requirements, are disposed of as quickly as possible over the next five years to help meet the enhanced capital expenditure programme. It was agreed that the chairman would report back to the Minister by the end of November.