Deputy Seán Ryan has ten minutes remaining.
Private Members' Business. - Public Transport: Motion (Resumed).
The following motion was moved by Deputy Yates on Tuesday, 9 December 1998:
That Dáil Éireann calls on the Government to implement a major investment programme in public transport, both with immediate effect and as a significant part of the National Development Plan 2000-2006 to specifically provide the following measures:
(a) a 40 per cent increase in the capacity of Dublin Bus, with particular emphasis on fleet expansion and daily peak travel demand;
(b) the upgrading of the railway network to ensure that passenger safety is not compromised and that the recommendations from the two recent consultants' reports relating to investment in track, signalling, equipment and rolling stock are implemented;
(c) the construction of the Luas project with light rail provision for the first three routes as proposed in the Government decision earlier this year.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:
"Dáil Éireann—
(a) welcomes the Government's speedy decision to provide additional public transport funding in response to the Dublin Transportation Office's Short-Term Action Plan, thereby increasing peak-hour bus capacity by 20 per cent by end-1999 and peak-hour rail capacity by 60 per cent by 2000;
(b) welcomes the tax incentives for public transport announced in the Budget;
(c) welcomes the Government's decision to appoint a High Level Task Force on Railway Safety to report by end-January, 1999 with prioritised recommendations to address the railway safety issues identified in A Review of Railway Safety in Ireland;
(d) notes that the planning of the extended and re-energised Luas project approved by Government is proceeding on target; and
(e) notes that CIE, at the request of the Minister for Public Enterprise, has prepared a series of medium-term investment reviews as an input into the Government's planning for the next round of EU Structural and Cohesion Fund assistance.”.
—(Minister for Public Enterprise)
Acting Chairman
With the permission of the House, I would like to share my time with Deputy Broughan.
Acting Chairman
Is that agreed? Agreed.
In the greater Dublin area, traffic congestion has replaced crime as the key concern for ordinary people. The difficulties being experienced in getting to and from work, school and shopping are exasperating for everyone. This in turn causes stress, accidents, noise and pollution. When the Minister for Public Enterprise is making her case to the Government for an allocation to reduce gridlock, it would be helpful if a report to assess the full social, economic and environmental costs of the congestion was commissioned — not only in Dublin but throughout the State. I am convinced this would provide startling statistics which would assist her in securing considerably more funding for public transport.
There was a time when Dublin city was gridlocked during the peak morning and evening periods. This is no longer the case; all routes into and out of the city centre are congested for most of the day. This has become part of our daily routine and will get worse given the number of new vehicles which are being purchased.
One alternative is the provision of a high quality, reliable public transport service on road or rail. The inadequate number of trains serving the towns of Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush, Lusk, Donabate, Malahide and Portmarnock in my constituency is a matter of grave concern to me and is an issue which causes a great deal of anger for my constituents. Commuters are squashed together like sardines and even in the toilets there is standing room only. In such circumstances potential customers are not prepared to tolerate these conditions and will never be encouraged to leave their cars at home.
A change in public attitudes will only be encouraged by the provision of improved infrastructure such as new rolling stock and carriages. It is easy for the anti-public transport lobby, which has been listened to over the years, to point its finger at CIE, Irish Rail, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. Lack of infrastructural funding by consecutive Governments is responsible for the present crisis.
While I am pleased that Irish Rail has taken delivery of 27 new carriages, 12 of which are in service at present, these are long overdue and more are required. As a TD for Dublin North, I demand that, by the time these carriages are in service at the end of February, longer trains are provided on the northern suburban routes. This will eliminate the safety hazard which currently exists and will encourage more people onto the trains.
Dublin Airport has once again broken all records for the number of passengers passing through it. In view of this, it is inadequate that these passengers have no bus service directly to and from the city centre. At present buses servicing Swords are redirected through the airport. A terminus must be established at the airport to provide an ongoing service to the city centre and other growth areas accessible from the M50, such as Blanchardstown and Tallaght.
The park and ride system needs to be extended. I am impressed by the number of people willing to leave their cars in Whitehall and use the special buses which run every ten minutes.
Dublin Bus has ordered 200 new buses which are not wheelchair accessible. Given the undertaking by the Department to provide wheelchair accessible buses, I want the Minister to state why she is not adhering to this policy, a matter of grave concern for people with disabilities.
There has been much debate about the role of taxis and hackneys in providing a public transport service. It is in the interests of both organisations that they reach a consensus on their respective roles. If this is not forthcoming, I can see the Minister introducing legislation to completely deregulate the system, which would not be in the interests of either party.
It is vitally important that relationships between the board of any semi-State organisation, which has such a significant role to play in public transport, and the Minister are not strained. The Minister has appointed four new members to the board of CIE. What is the relationship between the Minister, the chairman and the chief executive? What example is being given?
Bus corridors are necessary if timing and frequency of service are to improve. Notwithstanding the media hype of last week, with the opening of the new bus corridor between Malahide and the city centre, responsibilities lie with the local authorities and the Garda to provide the necessary road space for the corridors. Progress has been slow in this area over the years and that is not acceptable.
As gridlock grows there has been much debate in this House and elsewhere. The people of Dublin, however, see very few practical results. Let us commit ourselves to the implementation of some of these proposals.
I have asked the Taoiseach to come to the House to deal definitively with the gridlock problem, particularly on the north side, his own region. I am a cyclist and a bus user but I had to use my car today, as I have to do regularly, and I spent an hour and a half traversing the Malahide QBC, which does not work and which is dangerous at many points. There is total chaos. The north side is used to being shafted.
Shafted?
We lost out on Luas and on the direct links between the airport and the city centre. The reasons for the chaos are clear. In 1971, CIE came forward with a plan for a major DART network. Who shot it down? Over most of that time Fianna Fáil was in Government. Fianna Fáil would not spend the money.
A north side Taoiseach.
A north side Taoiseach was not prepared to spend the money on Dublin, particularly on the north side of Dublin. Fianna Fáil shafted us on the north side and shafted us in the city.
Shafted?
There have been seven wasted years since we announced that we wanted to get Luas up and running. The Government has waffled around for two years about whether the system should go underground or overground?
Where is the Minister for Public Enterprise? She was asked to meet Dublin City Council and the other three local authorities in the past few weeks and we are still waiting to see her. Has she got the guts to come into the Dublin civic offices and give us an account of her actions over the past 18 months?
I welcome some of the measures taken in that time but in many areas this Government has failed lamentably in relation to the provision of a modern public transport system. Fianna Fáil played a disgraceful political game with the taxi industry over the past year and a half. It argued that there would not be 150 extra licences for the city. What did it give us? It gave us 1,250 licences.
Is the Deputy complaining?
Everyone knew we needed many more taxi licences and the Government and the Taoiseach misled those people.
We need huge investment in public transport, particularly in buses. It is disgraceful that, while the Government has ordered 150 buses, it has not ordered buses accessible to the disabled despite our constant interaction with representatives of the disabled, such as the Centre for Independent Living.
The Government and the Minister have failed lamentably. We are still sitting here tonight in total gridlock.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Kelleher, McGuinness, John Browne (Wexford) and Conor Lenihan.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I am amazed at the motion put forward by the Fine Gael Leader and some Fine Gael Deputies although I can understand their concern about ensuring that Dublin commuters are afforded an improved taxi, bus and rail system. All Deputies, including me, are no stranger to the experience of sitting in traffic jams in Dublin. We have all experienced the stress and total frustration of wasting time we could put to better use while waiting for transport, and then sitting in the same transport in gridlock.
I am disappointed Deputy John Bruton is not in the Chamber because I felt great sympathy for him on the much publicised occasion when he actually queued for a bus — a once in a lifetime experience. I am sure his maiden outing has given him a deep understanding of the reality of life for the average commuter. Life can be hard in the slow lane.
I share the same anger that he and his cosignatories feel about public transport. I agree that much needs to be done. However, I am sorry he and his colleagues were not as vocal on this issue during their very recent term of office when they did nothing to address a situation that has increasingly worsened in recent years. At least this Government has shown its commitment, in its rapid response to the short-term action plan published by the Dublin Transportation Office late last year.
The Minister has shown her intent to tackle the traffic problems of the capital and the State at large, which is what we have come to expect of her. She has no intention of resting on her laurels and waiting for a future date when she might contemplate or talk about the need for urgent action. She has addressed the issues the Opposition has so lately discovered.
On the chaotic state of Dublin traffic, she has made positive decisions. She has decided that the DART and suburban station platforms must be extended to cope with longer trains. The purchase of 26 additional carriages and 47 extra suburban rail line coaches and the provision of new signalling are also on her agenda. When all the measures are in place for rail improvements there will be capacity for an additional 11,300 passengers.
The development of the quality bus corridors and 150 extra buses, will alleviate problems on our capital's streets caused by daily increasing motor car numbers. The purchaser of 120 double decker buses by Dublin Bus as replacements will increase their peak hour capacity by another 2,500 passengers.
The light rail advisory action group overseeing the planning and implementation of the Luas system held its initial meeting today. This is a measure of the Minister's intent to proceed with what the Opposition was only willing to debate, but not implement, because of the cost implications. She has grasped the nettle. Rail safety is a priority with this Government.
The Minister lost the money for the light rail.
Consultants have stressed the importance of this issue being addressed rather that being debated as an abstract, as was the practice of the last Government. Almost £600 million will be spent over the next 15 years. Of this, £12 million must be spent immediately to rectify the more pressing safety deficiencies.
The task force set up by the Government will identify safety issues that must be prioritised. This body, consisting of representatives from the Minister's department, the Department of Finance and CIE, is due to make its report by the end of January 1999.
The Government will prepare a national development plan early next year. On the basis of its recommendations, the Minister will present a strong case on the issue of public transport for the State.
The Joint Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport met all the relevant bodies in private and public transport. Consultants on a transport initiative are being engaged by the committee this week. This is the vision that is needed. The nationwide demands must be recognised and met. I am pleased to see the Minister views the situation on a national scale. When I read the motion, I could see the tunnel vision approach of an Opposition preoccupied with traffic problems in the greater Dublin area. I remind them that there is an Ireland outside the Pale — there are traffic problems in all 26 counties.
These traffic problems are caused by the increase in the number of cars on our roads. People have more disposable income, thanks to the tiger economy, and are investing it, many of them in new cars. Families have three and four cars now, which is adding to road congestion.
Up to the end of 1997, we had the following number of vehicles registered on Irish roads: 1.134 million cars, 158,000 goods vehicles, 24,000 motor cycles and 16,000 public service vehicles. When one takes into account tractors and exempt vehicles, one ends up with 1.432 million vehicles on our roads. Ten years ago, the total figure was 981,000, so there is an increase of 31.5 per cent. The Opposition should not blame the Minister for Ireland's successes, but should praise her for playing her role in meeting the problems it has caused.
Cork city is now experiencing traffic congestion from early in the morning until late afternoon. I know this will be a surprise to the proposers of the motion, whose total energies are devoted to solving the traffic problems that affect them in Dublin. They do this to the exclusion of the interests of the travelling public of the State. It is a nice and convenient approach — ignore the larger problems and they might go away.
We heard a great many noises from Deputy Bruton and his colleagues during the Cork by-election. Congestion, gridlock and traffic delays were the catchphrases of the day. However, they did not solve the Cork city traffic problem when they had the opportunity and they have not mentioned it since the recent canvass. They won the seat and sat back.
However, the Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, has bothered to do something about it. She visited Cork at my request and met CIE management and unions. She travelled on the park-and-ride system to evaluate the effectiveness and success of the scheme, and did not even notify the photographers. There is now consideration for park-and-ride tax relief in this year's budget. As a result of this visit, we are getting 34 new buses next year for Cork city — 18 city buses, ten commuter-type buses and six mini-buses. That is what I call taking action and tackling a problem.
To complement the additional fleet, Cork Corporation is planning to introduce six quality bus corridors, three in the north city and three in the south city. This will help ease traffic congestion and encourage more people to use public transport in our city.
The Minister's approach is to address the local issue and take cognisance of the larger problem of traffic congestion nationwide. She is looking for a long-term solution for the whole country, and not a quick fix for just a sector of the country to answer the demands of a group with obvious vested political interests. I unreservedly praise and support the Minister for her positive approach to the overall problem.
Do the one million people in Dublin have a vested interest?
I welcome this motion by the Opposition because it gives us an opportunity to discuss the issue of the modern, urban phenomenon of gridlock in our major cities. As a result of the success of recent years, we now have cities coming to a standstill at regular intervals throughout the day.
The Opposition is in a cloud of amnesia. It was obvious for years to everyone that something had to be done to address the fundamental problem of gridlock and traffic chaos in our cities. I was delighted to hear Opposition Deputies talk about the fundamental need to invest in public transport, to insist on bus lanes and to ensure that trains and rail services are radically improved. The statistics show that nothing was done for many years. It is only in recent times, since we came into office, that we have decided we must invest immediately in public transport, including rail, DART and bus services. I am delighted the Minister has publicly committed herself to do what is required.
On the funding of infrastructural development, we must take a radical approach to the development of our infrastructure with reduced funding from Europe, the continuous growth in the economy and increased car numbers. We must opt for public-private investment funding. Otherwise, we will stifle the economy's growth and bring the Celtic tiger to a very rapid standstill.
When one travels from Dublin to Cork or Galway one sees the ad hoc planning by the National Roads Authority, whereby a bypass is planned and developed and the funding is provided but then a bypass or road is not planned for the next village. We must develop a national strategy to design roads which will be funded by public-private investment. If that is done, we can continue the growth of this economy well into the next millennium.
My proposal for public-private partnership funding is that major insurance or banking institutions would provide the initial capital investment and the Government would operate a lease back system over a period. The Government would not then have to lay out the initial capital sum and could lease back the infrastructure over a period of time and then it would be vested in the State. There is a need for that, and if it is not done soon we will be unable to manage our infrastructure and develop it in the long-term because European funding will have dried up.
On the issue of public transport, people will not use public transport unless there is an incentive in the form of bus lanes, ambience or the fact that it is cheaper and more time efficient. So far our public transport systems are none of those things.
There was an increase today.
Huge investment in public transport is necessary. I welcome the Minister's announcement of 150 extra buses for Dublin and of extra buses for Cork. If we are to continue down that road, along with car pooling and the encouragement of park and ride systems, it might go some way to alleviating the problems.
Local authorities have a major role to play, particularly in the planning of roadworks and road resurfacing. I am amazed that local authorities insist on carrying out roadworks during peak traffic hours. It perplexes me to this day that they cannot work out a schedule whereby roadworks are done when traffic is at a minimum. There are still major junctions in cities where local authorities dig up cross-roads on a Friday afternoon to carry out work, leave them unattended for the weekend and resume work on Monday.
On the issue of car pooling, local authorities should set up a car pooling system whereby individuals who travel to the city from outside it each morning at a set time could feed relevant information into a computer system within the local authority, the local authority could correlate all the information received and facilitate car pooling for those who wish to do so. Such car pooling could be encouraged by offering free parking to those who avail of it. If this were tackled in a serious manner it would reduce the incidence of people sitting in gridlock every morning, one person to a car, and in a very short time the culture of using one car to transport four people to the city from outside it would be adopted by large numbers of people. This would go a long way to addressing the problems of pollution and gridlock.
I welcome the provisions made by Dublin Corporation and Cork Corporation to encourage park and ride systems. It is very effective and of major benefit wherever it has been put in place and has been properly enforced with bus lanes kept free. In view of the new-found interest in public transport on the part of the leader of Fine Gael, would it be possible to institute a bus lane from the Dáil to County Meath to ensure that he is here on time for the Order of Business.
I want to discuss the transport system through to the port of Belview which I raised earlier this evening and the infrastructure which needs to be put in place to ensure the smooth flow of traffic from Carlow and Kilkenny through Waterford or vice versa to Dublin.
In the context of the arguments put forward about public transport this evening, it takes about an hour to drive from Kilkenny to the Naas Road and about two and a half hours to get from there to Leinster House. Something definite will have to be done to improve the efficiency of that route. If the train service from Carlow-Kilkenny were improved to the extent that one could rely on it, people who are involved in the decentralised offices in Kilkenny would use that service much more. I am asking the Minister to look at Carlow-Kilkenny and to provide a commuter train service to Kilkenny. Many people commute from Kilkenny to Dublin to work. They find it extremely difficult to access this city by road and are relying on what exists of the rail system. Likewise, many companies in Kilkenny have employees who travel from Dublin each day and rely on the train service. The timing of the service is wrong. The trains are often overcrowded and uncomfortable, and the service is too slow. I am asking for a proper commuter service.
Traffic management through our cities should be a main priority. Traffic management in medieval cities like Kilkenny should be prioritised by the Government to ensure that sufficient funds are made available to complete bypasses and inner-ring roads.
The Government should also look at the possibility of providing a public transport service in Kilkenny city. The city is now sprawling way beyond the old borough and houses are being built in their hundreds outside the main city area. People who live in these housing estates, like people in Dublin, are finding it extremely difficult to commute to their place of work, to transport children to and from school or to access services which are located in the centre of the city. I encourage the Government to examine the possibility of providing a public transport service in a city the size of Kilkenny. It is feasible but it needs intervention by the Government to ensure funding and provide a proper analysis of what is required.
The damage that traffic is doing to the heritage of the cities also has to be monitored. Kilkenny is a tourism destination. The train service is inadequate and needs to be examined. The services provided at the station are inadequate. Finance should be provided to improve them. The land adjacent to the station in Kilkenny could be sold and the proceeds invested in the further development of the station. I acknowledge the work that has been done to date, but much more remains to be done, particularly in view of the speed at which the local economy is growing and the attraction of Kilkenny as a commercial centre and a destination for tourists. In light of this debate I appeal to the Minister to ensure that a proper management study is carried out, that the ring roads are completed, that money is made available for the inner relief roads and that proper public transport is provided by way of a train service and a bus service for the residents of the city.
(Wexford): I welcome the debate on this motion. It gives Members an opportunity to outline our concerns. Accepting that gridlock is a major problem in Dublin, and has been a bone of contention for the past ten years with very little progress being made to resolve it, the larger towns and areas of the south-east suffer from similar problems due to the massive increase in the number of people using cars and the lack of planning by local authorities generally.
Deputy Broughan suggested that the Minister should attend meetings of the three Dublin county councils and Dublin Corporation. I hope she will attend such meetings. Given that the Minister always adopts a hands-on approach, I hope she will attend and discuss with the councillors the possibilities for resolving some of the difficulties. Deputy Yates and I, and other Deputies travelling from the south-east, can get to Loughlinstown Hospital in an hour and ten minutes but it can take anything between an hour and two hours to get from there to Leinster House. For the past seven months there have been roadworks at Loughlinstown and the slowness of progress on them continues to amaze me. On the day of the "choo-choo ‘flu" the roadworks increased to add to the major problems of rural people trying to get into the city. I certainly hope the Minister knocks heads together and that all political parties come together to make an effort to resolve the difficulty for our country cousins and other people who want to do business in the city and find it very difficult from a time consuming point of view.
I make a case for upgrading the railway line from Dublin to Rosslare which has been neglected by many Governments in recent years. I welcome Deputy Yates's interest in it in the past year — for the previous three years when he was a Minister he failed to provide any money or acknowledge that a difficulty existed. The rail line from Dublin to Rosslare is obsolete. The track is out of date and the rolling stock dates from the 1970s and has very few facilities for passengers. The disabled have no facilities whatever on this rail line. We are told it would cost £30 million to carry out work on 90 miles of track. While EU funding has not been granted I ask the Minister to make a start on this. The 1994 EU funding allocation clearly said the main reason funding was granted to other rail lines was the tourism potential and the economic viability of areas. Surely Rosslare, being a Euro port with one million passengers passing through each year, would be regarded as one of the major tourism areas. We need an adequate and proper rail line linking Rosslare to Dublin and Limerick. Many excuses have been trotted out by different Ministers. I hope the current Minister is listening and will ensure the Government makes adequate funds available. We are not asking her to provide £30 million overnight, but we are asking for a start to be made in improving the tracks and rail line.
The DART line is being extended to Greystones and probably in the near future to Wicklow Town. What concerns me and the people living in the south east is what will happen on the line from Wicklow Town to Rosslare. We are not prepared to allow that length of rail line to become completely obsolete and put out of action. We need action from the Minister and the Government.
Regarding other areas of public transport, it is coming to the stage where local authorities will have to examine park and ride facilities in major towns. Wexford Town is choked by traffic and it takes ages to travel around it. The Minister for the Environment and Local Government must become involved with local authorities in the provision of park and ride facilities which are now being provided and proving very successful in Dublin City.
I welcome the debate on transport and hope the Minister will listen to the call from the south east to immediately initiate the upgrade of the Dublin to Rosslare railway line.
I wish to share time with Deputy Callely. This debate arises against a background of rising public frustration about traffic in our capital city and even greater and well publicised hysteria on the Opposition benches, in particular from Fine Gael. There are no easy or quick fixes to Dublin's traffic congestion problems, yet if one was to listen and watch Deputy Bruton one would be forgiven for believing it was as simple as getting on a bus in d'Olier street and getting off again on College Green.
There must be movement on the traffic issue on a number of fronts, but perhaps the most important move must be to shift a considerable amount of the expected growth in Dublin's population outside the city to the Leinster towns which can easily be expanded. This means upgrading towns which are linked by rail to Dublin. It means, dare I say it, more people who work in Dublin commuting from such previously far flung places as Portlaoise and the county town of the Minister's constituency, Mullingar.
Within the city area the Government plan to build 11 quality bus corridors radiating from the city centre by next year is a commendable approach. The success of the two existing and operational bus corridors has been prodigious. For example, the Lucan bus corridor which opened in the middle of 1997 has so far seen an increase of 54 per cent in the number of passengers using the route. At least 25 per cent of these passengers were previously using their cars for journeys to and from the city centre. Commuters on the comparable Malahide route have experienced a reduction of some 30 per cent in the time they spend making the journey to the city centre.
In my constituency of Dublin South West there will be vast improvements when the Luas line is finally opened. Work is expected to begin towards the end of next year with a completion date in 2002. All of this is very welcome news. Consultants Arthur Andersen are currently looking at possible extensions to that and other projected Luas lines. They will do so in the context of public-private partnerships and I hope in my constituency they look seriously at extending Luas to the City West business park.
In his Árd Fheis speech the Taoiseach put the City West campus to the forefront as a location for electronic commerce. He stated it was his intention to make it a world class location for ecommerce. While City West currently employs upwards of a 1,000 people, in the long run this digital business park is expected to employ more than 7,000 people making it a far bigger project than the Irish Financial services Centre in the Dublin Docklands.
I use this debate to call on the Minister and the Taoiseach to make the extension of the Luas line to City West a top priority for the millennium. In the context of the area itself, extending Luas to the City West business park would also be of benefit to west Tallaght which houses some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country. Extending Luas would help in bringing these areas back into the mainstream.
In terms of improved traffic management in the City of Dublin I also welcome the move by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Dempsey, to further deregulate the taxi and hackney business in Dublin. Hackney drivers deserve to be allowed use bus lanes in the same manner as taxis currently do. In addition, it is welcome to see some moves towards allowing hackneys have some form of identification on their vehicles and use two way radios. This is how things operate in the UK and other countries on the Continent and it is long overdue here. Taxis and hackneys have a very strong role to play in evolving public transport in Dublin and other urban locations.
The recent budget announcements of tax incentives for those who establish park and ride facilities is a welcome boost and I hope it will lead to greater investment. The decision not to apply benefit in kind to bus and rail tickets bought for workers by their employers is another commendable move. It will shift people on to public transport and will become part of the standard wage and salary package for workers in the years ahead. This kind of non-pay incentive will also play a part in dampening down wage inflation, a problem with which the economy is currently wrestling.
There is a paradox to the provision of greater public transport infrastructure. It tends to pull even more people in to live in a city or urban conurbation. This occurred in London with the M25 orbital road which was built to solve congestion but which very rapidly became a further source of even greater congestion. This is the essential paradox of developing and modernising cities and urban areas in the modern age. It appears that increasing infrastructure attracts more people to live in an area. This is why it is imperative that the Government consider a very thorough programme of regional development, including building up the infrastructure and facilities in areas which qualify for Objective One status to relieve pressure on cities such as Dublin.
I wish to focus on the issues pertaining to Dublin and draw attention to the fact that I have tabled a number of questions on this matter, some of which are due for answer tomorrow. For anybody to use the public service transport network in the city we must ensure it is satisfactory and meets all the demands of the public. I am not satisfied that this is so.
I will refer to the quality bus corridor in the Malahide-Fairview area. I raised this matter at the city council last Monday night and there was much debate on it. We must recognise that there are businesses in the city before we put in quality bus corridors without buses and start roadworks without signs. That was crazy. We must ensure that the public transport system, which is subsidised, meets the social demands of people, particularly late at night. We cannot blame taxi drivers for not providing that service.
I will be sharing my time with Deputies Ring, Deenihan, Stanton and Sargent. I support the Fine Gael motion, as transport and traffic are literally the talk of the town. The first thing people talk about when they get to work is how long it has taken them to get there and the traffic they encountered. It is the same when they get home or go shopping. There is no doubt that some of the present traffic difficulties in Dublin are the result of economic success. The increases in the number of private cars and in the amount of freight going through our cities are the result of economic activity. It is the price of success.
However, the problems with Dublin traffic are also due to the Government's lack of action. It has been clear for a long time that the solution to the traffic problem is a major shift to public transport. Deputy Kelleher is wrong when he says the last Government did not deal with this situation; it did. The DTO strategy was put in place, and that pointed clearly at a radical shift towards a public transport solution for Dublin. The last Government also made the critical decision to proceed with the flagship of the DTO strategy, the Luas project, by introducing the necessary legislation. It made critical and difficult decisions about that project.
The momentum to deal with the Dublin traffic problem was initiated by the last Government, but the present Minister and Government will be remembered for losing that momentum. They have done so first by delaying the Luas project and then deciding to go underground with it. We do not know for how long the project will be delayed. Part of the reason is that we do not know what the Minister and her technical people will find when they go underground. The geological assessment of whether it is possible to go underground has apparently not been done or reported on.
A parliamentary question on this matter was put down by one of my colleagues, and part of the question related to the geological assessment, if any, given to the Minister. It was disallowed by the Ceann Comhairle's office, and I accept that decision. However, I find it strange that all other aspects of the question — whether the decision to go underground will cost additional money, what action has been taken since the Government decision of May 1998 — could be answered except the matter of the geological assessment and the prospects of going underground. I was told that the Minister has no official responsibility to the Dáil in this matter as it is a matter for CIE.
This is a classic case of the Minister shifting ground. The technical assessment of going underground has suddenly left the Minister's desk and become a matter for CIE. She makes the decision to go underground, though she was told at the time that there were serious geological implications.
In the Atkins report.
Yes. Now she has suddenly washed her hands of the geological implications. She does not know what shifting sands are underground, but she has certainly shifted the sands in CIE's direction. It is now their responsibility. When the day arrives, as it may if the Atkins prediction is borne out, that the geologists find the underground option is not on, then Luas will be off the table again.
This is the Government that has made a critical and fatal decision to postpone the Luas project and drive it underground in more senses than one — to drive it underground permanently. That will leave the people of Dublin strangled by an appalling traffic problem that is tying up the economy of the city.
If we are seriously to shift to a public transport system we do not need exhortations to people to use public transport. Realistically, one can only expect people to use such a system when it is available, reliable, comfortable and economical. Unfortunately, the present public transport system in Dublin is none of those things. We do not have enough buses, and the DART does not operate after 11.30 p.m. Staff are not available in some stations from early in the evening, which makes some people feel the stations are unsafe. Because there are so few buses the service is unreliable and bus users must regularly wait a very long time for a bus to arrive. When it does come it is often overcrowded and uncomfortable, an experience shared by train commuters, particularly those taking weekend trains out of Dublin. Often there is standing room only on those trains.
In that context I draw attention to the Minister's stated intention to increase fares on Dublin Bus. That is a lunatic decision if we are to shift to public transport, as increasing fares on the transport system will only worsen Dublin's traffic problems. Instead of increasing fares, I call on the Minister to increase the subvention for Dublin's public transport.
The solution to Dublin's chronic traffic problem requires an efficient public transport system with an attractive fares structure. Bus and DART fares are already high. A return journey from the outer suburbs to the city for a couple and two children costs £6.60, which certainly makes it cheaper and more attractive to bring a car if they have one. Increasing fares will only create hardship for those on low incomes and encourage those who have cars to continue using them. With the prospect of Luas disappearing further and further into the distant future, Dublin Bus will remain the key element of the public transport system in the greater Dublin area. Despite the public perception to the contrary, the level of public subvention for Dublin Bus is less than 4p per passenger journey. While some funds from the delayed Luas project have been provided for new buses, the general level of subvention remains one of the lowest among similarly sized cities in Europe. The Minister's announcement that fares are to go up is very bad news for commuters and those facing the traffic problem. It should not proceed.
As a west of Ireland Deputy I sympathise with my colleagues in Dublin on the massive problem here. However, the question that should be asked is why this problem was created. We have a problem in the west of Ireland in that we cannot keep the population there. Government after Government could not get enough people, cars and factories into Dublin, forgetting about the rest of the country. When the Government had an opportunity to redress the situation in terms of Objective One status it included Kerry and Clare to make sure Ireland would not get such status and the west would not get the needed infrastructure.
I have listened to debate on Luas, DART and buses but none of these are to be found in the west and only for private companies, people from Mayo would not be able to travel anywhere. For many years, Government after Government neglected the rail network. A recent report has shown it is very dangerous. People must use cars to travel up and down to Dublin because they are afraid to use public transport. Why does Government always have to think about Dublin? Many civil servants work and live in Dublin and they forget about the rest of the country. What is happening in the west matters and people in the west are entitled to the same standard of public transport.
Iarnród Éireann does not go into north Mayo but there is a train service between Castlebar and Dublin. Leaving Castlebar for Dublin on a train at 8 a.m. due to arrive at 11 a.m., one would be lucky to arrive at 3 p.m. some days. On the return journey, having booked a seat one would be lucky to get on the back of the train because seats would have been overbooked. This must change and the Government must put policies in place that cater for the entire country.
A monster has been created in Dublin by all Governments but there is an easy way to resolve many of these problems. First, many Departments should be relocated from Dublin to rural areas. There is beautiful countryside in the west and nobody has ever been eaten there. People would love to live there. There are nice schools, but a bad infrastructure and no roads. When there was an opportunity to redress this in the application for Objective One status the entire Dublin city brigade was afraid we might catch up with them. We are not looking for any more than Dublin people. I love to see Dublin people getting on but I represent the west and we did not get our fair share of the national cake for the past 50 years. The people of the west will not accept it any longer.
There are massive transport problems in Dublin. There was one car between three or four houses 20 years ago whereas I recall that during the recent by-elections in Dublin and Cork there were four cars outside some houses. We did not keep pace in terms of developing our infrastructure. The road between Longford and Westport is not just the worst road in the country but in the world. If one travels between Mullingar and Dublin there are motorways and bypasses. In some cases three rounds of Structural Funds were provided but the west could not even get one round.
A problem has been created in the cities which could be resolved easily. Public servants should be relocated. The Department of Agriculture and Food should be moved to the west because many people would love to live there if they had the opportunity. I hope the Government will not do what it has done with the National Roads Authority. No Deputy was elected by the NRA, yet when the a parliamentary question to do with roads is tabled to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, he says that it is the responsibility of the NRA. The NRA does not represent anybody and now somebody there will probably be put in charge of transport. Then when Deputy Gilmore tables a parliamentary question to the Minister he will say he does not have responsibility for it. Ministers are good at delegating responsibility to make sure they must not make a decision.
Difficult decisions must be made during the coming years. Infrastructure must be put in place in Dublin and the west and I hope we get our fair share of the national cake. The first thing that must be done is to allocate funds to the rail service between Dublin and Westport. It is a disaster and I know the Government's agenda is to close it down, but that will not happen.
I will refer to the rail network between Mallow and Tralee. More than 2 million tourists visit Kerry every summer and they arrive by road, air and rail. Unfortunately, the road network is totally inadequate and inferior to others throughout the country. There is but one decent road coming into Kerry. There has been no investment in the road coming into the county from Limerick over the past ten years despite all the Structural Funds. We are relying very heavily on Kerry County Airport and last year 250,000 people passed through it.
However, there is also a great reliance on the train service, which is inadequate. Trains are rarely, if ever, on time not because of those driving them or looking after them, but because of the totally substandard rail line. A large number of young people from County Kerry work and study in Dublin, with many of them involved in banking, IT and the Civil Service. They like to come home to County Kerry for a number of reasons every weekend, especially during the summer but they are provided with an inferior service. Most of them cannot even get a seat on the train, which was also mentioned by Deputy Ring.
There were two very serious derailments on the line between Killarney and Tralee during the past three years and it was very fortunate that nobody was killed or seriously injured. On 26 June the Minister announced an investment package of £26 million for mainline rail track upgrading as part of the reallocation of the EU aid decommitted from the Luas project. A sum of £10 million was invested in the line between Mallow and Killarney, which I welcome, but there was no investment in the line between Killarney and Tralee where the main problems lie and where these incidents occurred. Page 42 of the Review of Rail safety in Ireland published this year gives a summary of its results. The Mallow-Tralee line ranked second in Ireland in terms of the predicted train accident frequency per year after the Connolly Station-Mullingar line. It is vitally important that County Kerry should have a proper rail line running from Mallow to Tralee because of its huge dependency on tourism.
Mr. Coveney
I could not allow the debate to pass without referring to Ireland's second city, Cork. Traffic problems in Cork city have now reached unacceptably high levels. Rush hour, morning and evening, in the city centre results in traffic gridlock almost every day, choking the city and frustrating thousands of commuters on their way to and from work. In urban areas, nationally, the economic costs of traffic delays, the environmental costs of so many cars on the road and inadequate infrastructure have become unacceptable.
The explanation for Dublin's problems has been that our unprecedented growth rates in recent years have overloaded the existing and planned infrastructure. However, the same cannot be said of Cork. In the 20 years which have passed since the Cork Land Use and Transportation Plan was devised, £300 million has been invested in the infrastructure and road network in the greater Cork area. The resulting ring road has improved traffic flow considerably. The full benefit will be reaped when the Lee Tunnel opens, the Blackpool bypass is completed and the west link is extended to bypass Ballincollig.
However, upgrading the public transport system in Cork will maximise the benefit of the infrastructural investment. Dual carriageways are of little use at peak times if they are jammed with cars. Motorists in Dublin know what I am talking about because within months of the completion of the M50 motorway signs were erected saying "peak time delays" or "20 minutes from here to next exit". We must learn lessons from this and attempt to ensure free flowing traffic in Cork and other growing cities.
I am sure the Minister does not need me to tell her that more people than ever can afford to buy cars. The number of cars on the road in Cork has doubled in five years. There are too many cars going into and out of Cork city centre, regardless of how big we build our roads. The only way to reduce the traffic problem is to offer people a realistic alternative to taking their cars into the city centre by providing attractive public transport. The current public transport system is grossly inadequate, not because of lack of will or effort by Bus Éireann in Cork but because of lack of funding.
People will use public transport if it is properly provided. The success of the Cobh/Cork commuter rail link and the Victoria
Cross/County Hall park and ride facility shows what can be achieved when people are presented with a quality public transport alternative to the private car. During the by-election in Cork traffic was a key concern and I looked at ways of improving the public transport system, consulting with Bus Éireann and many commuters. Fine Gael devised a plan which would cost the Government only £13 million; it included the provision of quality new buses and the creation of bus corridors in certain traffic black spots in the city, as has now been proposed for Dublin. At present the average age of a bus in Cork is 12 years, hardly the sort of vehicles which will attract new users. We must invest in new buses. With so many Government TDs in Cork I am surprised and disappointed that the recent budget contains no commitment to purchase any new buses for Cork, despite the fact that Dublin is to get 150 new buses over a phased time period.
Park and ride facilities are needed also, but they are required all year, not just at Christmas, and they must be connected to the ring road, so that people can park cars safely outside the city centre and catch a shuttle bus service into town. Areas such as Douglas, Bishopstown and Grange on the south side of the city, and Dillion's Cross, Blackpool and Gurranebraher on the north side of the city were prioritised for park and ride services.
It seems that advanced planning by the people of Cork over 20 years ago which is resulting in a superb infrastructure is to be thwarted by this Government's inability to learn the lessons of the Dublin traffic experience. Are we to wait until the problem is out of control, despite the existence of obvious, agreed and relatively inexpensive potential solutions?
I support Deputy Coveney's remarks. Driving into Cork city from the east is a nightmare. This was not the case two or three years ago, but it is now unbelievable. Traffic on the dual carriageway is backed up for two miles. The road from Midleton to the city is one of the best of the country; the east Cork parkway, a marvellous two lane dual carriageway, was opened last year by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government. However, one then goes from the 21st century to the 19th century — cars meet a skewed bridge and go into a single lane system. People are frustrated, angry, and want to know why something is not being done. It is unbelievable that one can travel 15 miles in 20 minutes and then travel two miles in an hour. Cars engines are idling, polluting the air.
However, there is a solution. I am delighted to see the Minister of State, Deputy Jacob, in the House, because I am sure he will remember that last year I reminded him of the opportunity to open the rail link to Midleton, which would solve the problem straightaway. It would cost less than
£10 million to do this and it would take many cars off the road. My colleague mentioned the Lee tunnel, which has been called the greatest civil engineering project in the State. However, that was planned before we had gridlock and by the time it comes on stream it will not solve the problem. The Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, was quoted by The Examiner in October as saying that she would re-open the rail link but Iarnród Éireann informed me today that it has no plans to do so. There is a contradiction. This would cost a small amount of money but would solve many problems for the people of east Cork, and also those travelling from Dublin who have to cross the skewed bridge. I do not know whether the Minister is familiar with it, but he is welcome to come to Cork during rush hour to see it, as he would then feel the same frustration as the rest of us.
Why does the Cork-Dublin train slow down on the line? We have a good rail link but it takes a lot longer than it should. The train is overcrowded and there are not enough carriages. Iarnród Éireann does not seem to be able to plan for more passengers. It is dangerous when the trains are packed to capacity — there is no standing room, let alone sitting room.
There is an air link between Cork and Dublin but it is not a proper one — it is expensive and there is no competition. Could the Government consider introducing competition on the route?
Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta Yates agus a chomhleacaí i bhFine Gael as a chuid ama a roinnt. This subject is close to my heart. Public transport is always short of investment and what investment there is tends to be focused where the lobbying is strongest, which is in the interest of the private motorist, the AA and ancillary lobby groups. The Government has put a spin on its public transport investment, which even the Minister said was not easy to obtain. A qualified welcome has been given to the 150 buses being added to the fleet of 900 in Dublin. One must still ask the basic questions: first, why an order was not put in for LPG buses; and second, why no account was taken of the needs of people with disabilities in ordering the fleet. Perhaps the order has not yet been placed and there may be time to change it to take those needs into account. There is a vigil at Heuston Station and the Minister may be aware that these people are incensed that they will not be facilitated in the new public transport investment. One would think they would be taken into account. DG 16 of the European Commission, which is behind £8.5 million of this investment, has stated that no funds are to be used which do not cater for people with disabilities. Not only should these buses carry a sign reading "Luas R.I.P."— for this is the money which would have been spent on light rail — but we should also remember we could be endangering European funding and putting ourselves in a bad position with the Commission by mis-spending funds and neglecting people with disabilities. It is not public transport when members of the public are excluded — it is elitist transport.
Unless the Government gives priority to buses, railways, bicycles and pedestrians, not only will we choke on traffic fumes but the congestion will continue to lose us millions of pounds in business and in fines for excess CO 2 emissions which we are obliged to reduce under the Kyoto protocol. As things stand we will have to pay between £500 million and £1 billion unless we reduce emissions. We are obliged to contribute to public transport, and it is in everyone's interest to do so.
The people I represent in Fingal are obliged to stand on buses and trains when going to work or school. They must wait in the rain because there are no bus shelters. If they are travelling into town from Swords, they must go on a tour via Dublin Airport. This might be a novelty on the first occasion but it becomes tedious and unnecessary if one is travelling to work on the bus every day. They have no Sunday train service. Deputy Gilmore said the DART stops at 11.30 p.m, but that would be a luxury in north County Dublin where there is no late night service. There is no park and ride capacity worth talking about at the train stations. The spaces for cars and bicycles are usually full unless one is up at the crack of dawn and gets there before anybody else. The few cycle ways start and finish in the middle of nowhere. They are nothing more than tokens to satisfy somebody in the European Commission who has not looked too carefully at the situation.
We are way behind our compatriots in other European Union countries. Unless the Government starts to give an example, the hypocrisy will add to the neglect and put us in bad stead for assistance for future investment in public transport. Every ministerial car weighs about two tonnes and pumps out six tonnes of CO 2 every year. This is a fine example and this is where we should start to change.
I thank all the Members who spoke on this important subject. It is fair to conclude, based on what Deputies said, that there is strong support for increased investment in public transport.
A number of Deputies noted that this commitment to public transport is new and rightly referred to the long period of under-investment in public transport. The economic boom of recent years has provided the means for many more people to acquire private cars and the effects in terms of traffic congestion are, unfortunately, there for all to see.
Some Deputies also referred to the air and noise pollution aspects of traffic. We are all increasingly conscious of our health and of the general damage to the environment, including to buildings, caused by air pollution. Our cities were designed long before the private car was invented. When the cities were being laid out, travel was limited to very few people. Nobody today would agree to tearing the city apart to facilitate cars and, in any case, the evidence from other countries suggests this would not be the solution.
There is also widespread agreement in the House that there is not a magic alternative formula for dealing with traffic in our cities. A number of speakers pointed out that a co-ordinated approach is essential and that is at the root of the Government's plans. This involves providing additional bus and rail capacity, introducing quality bus corridors to improve bus performance, developing the light rail project as quickly as possible, improving traffic management, encouraging cycling and walking, providing incentives for developing park and ride facilities and providing incentives for employers to encourage their employees to use public transport.
We have all been disappointed at the pace of introduction of quality bus corridors. This has often been due to concerns by local people that they will suffer substantial adverse consequences in the wake of QBCs. I have no doubt the people involved are genuinely concerned and the success of these corridors depends on their acceptance by the public. Members of the House have a duty to allay public concerns and to encourage the people of Dublin to put their faith in a revitalised public transport system.
The Lucan QBC has been an enormous success. In the very short time the Malahide Road QBC has been operating, there has been a huge take up by passengers, although one Deputy made adverse comments about it. There is also plenty of evidence from other European cities of the enormous improvements which public transport brings to the economy, lifestyles and environmental conditions in cities.
The Minister already listed the component parts of the Government's programme to deal with traffic congestion. It would be wonderful if the problem could be solved tomorrow, but that is unrealistic. However, the Government's programme will result in the full complement of 150 extra buses being available before the end of 1999 and the DART and suburban rail fleet expansion will be completed by the end of 2000. This will be the biggest single increase in bus and rail capacity since the DART was introduced.
DART and suburban rail have been a major success. Their success is the cause of much of the current criticism about overcrowding. The extra rolling stock will expand suburban rail capacity by 60 per cent. At the same time the extension of the DART service to Greystones and Malahide and doubling the suburban rail track between Clonsilla and Maynooth will bring the convenience and safety of rail travel to a much larger population.
In the budget the Government provided tax incentives which will encourage private sector development of park and ride facilities. The budget also removes the benefit-in-kind taxation obstacle to employers who wish to offer their staff rail or bus tickets in place of company cars.
In the medium term, the light rail project, which the Minister launched in a re-energised and expanded form last May, will provide a significant improvement in Dublin public transport for the new millennium. The Minister is pushing the project ahead vigorously on several fronts. The public inquiry on the Tallaght to Abbey Street line has just been completed. The consultants to advise the Minister about public private partnership options for the project have been selected and the first meeting of the light rail advisory action group has taken place.
Another strong argument in favour of public transport is that trains and buses are significantly more friendly to the environment in several ways compared to the private car. The amount of energy consumed per person carried is much less, resulting in reduced levels of all forms of air pollution. Buses and trains also make much better use of the limited road space and reduce the need for parking space.
At a time when we are all concerned about the level of death and injury in road accidents, it is important to recognise that trains and buses provide a much safer means of travel than cars. The Minister has spoken in the House on a number of occasions about the independent review of railway safety which she commissioned. While Iarnrod Éireann has a very satisfactory safety record by international standards, everybody is aware that the railway has suffered most through under-investment.
The Government is committed to the future of the railway and to ensuring, on the basis of the advice of the independent consultants, that it will be safe. The high level task force is due to report to the Minister at the end of January with prioritised recommendations for implementing the safety consultants' findings and I have no doubt the Minister will act on the recommendations without delay.
I commend the amended motion to the House on the basis that it reflects the vigorous approach of the Government to the issue of public transport. It is the first comprehensive approach of its kind.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Belton, Kenny and Yates.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
Mullingar is a rapidly growing town and the necessity for an adequate commuter rail link to Dublin has never been more acute. Upwards of 100 workers and students daily use the existing commuter link which leaves Mullingar at 6.45 a.m. and arrives in Dublin at 8.30 a.m. if they are lucky. The quality of the carriages and the unreliability of the service leave much to be desired.
In the recent debate on the report on rail safety, I called on the Minister to bring forward the committed investment for the Dublin-Mullingar rail link to upgrade the line and signalling equipment and thus make it safer. A sum of £12.5 million has been allocated for track renewal and £5 million for signalling. However, the benefits of these improvements will not come on stream until the end of next year. Why does the Minister not let out this work to private contractors or take on additional employees to do it? Why can this programme of renewal not be accelerated to improve safety and efficiency on the line? This proposal was endorsed by many Fianna Fáil Party Deputies when I made it in the House previously. I am disappointed the Minister has not responded.
A further £17.5 million is to be spent on providing a second rail track from Dublin to Maynooth and to improve rail safety as far as Carrick-on-Shannon. This will take at least three years to finalise. I call on the Minister to immediately authorise the provision of a second rail track all the way to Mullingar from Dublin, serving Maynooth, Enfield, Killucan and Mullingar and thus enabling the many road users currently commuting to Dublin every day to avail of an efficient rail service.
As the roads become clogged with traffic, investment in the railway network makes sense. Investing in track serving provincial towns is particularly wise because it complements the already available development land, sewerage facilities, schools and recreational and social facilities which exist in towns. The existing travel time of one hour and 45 minutes from Mullingar to Dublin is unacceptably long. The reintroduction of a dual track would greatly reduce this travel time. It should be noted that a dual track existed previously between Mullingar and Dublin, but dismantling of it began in the 1920s. It is now time to restore this line. Rail travel is the form of travel of the future. If we are to move forward and improve efficiency and mobility, the way forward is to improve our rail lines.
I welcome the opportunity to highlight the problems on the Dublin-Sligo line, especially the section from Mullingar through Longford to Carrick-on-Shannon. Recently the Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, announced £15 million would be allocated for work on that section of the line. Since then the safety report has highlighted that section of the line as being in need of immediate action.
Recently I had occasion to travel on the Cork-Dublin line and my trip was successful. The difference between the Cork-Dublin line and the Dublin-Sligo line was a shock to the system. I was inclined to remain on the train and return to Cork. The Dublin-Sligo line has become a subject of legend. However, we must be positive and optimistic. The Minister has announced an increased service for the Maynooth-Dublin section of the line. This will relieve much of the overcrowding from Maynooth to Dublin especially on the earlier trains which make many stops. The same applies in the evening time. I look forward to seeing the money committed to that section being spent on it.
I strongly support the motion. Will the Minister clarify whether there is any foundation to the rumour that the report from the independent consultants was not the report actually prepared by them? If this is the case, there would be serious implications.
I would dearly like to have the opportunity to reply but I do not. The matter has been dealt with and the Deputy is aware of that.
When will legislation be introduced to deal with the issue of accountability as referred to in that report? The Knockcroghery train crash resulted from fatigue on the line. Fatigue in the metal cannot be seen by the workers since they do not have the resources to detect it. This will be a cause of further accidents in the future, as determined by that report. In the past fortnight cattle were killed on the line between Athlone and Claremorris. The issue of accountability in legal terms needs to be addressed quickly rather than attempt to blame the workers on that line who do not have the necessary equipment to detect metal fatigue.
Investment attracts investment. Coca Cola is spending £100 million in Ballina. The line from Manulla to Ballina is in a terrible condition and the train is not much better. Before investing in Ireland, companies look at all the available facilities and obviously the quality of the rail link is of critical importance. If we are serious about Objective One status and so on and want to attract investment to take pressure away from Dublin, Cork and Limerick, these areas should be given facilities and resources.
The projected traffic counts by the National Roads Authority over the next several years show a 60 per cent increase in car numbers. Irrespective of how fast road development takes place in Dublin, cars will continue to choke north, west and south of Dublin. Even with massive investment in inner relief and outer relief roads there will be an increased number of cars on the roads which will bring its own complications.
When stopped at traffic lights in Donnybrook recently, I counted 53 cars in a row, each with one occupant. If people were sharing that should be about 15 cars. Has there been a trawl by the Department and contact with local authorities as to the extent of road design completed and approved for investment under EU funding. We always blame Governments and Ministers for not providing funding for roads. Either the local authorities or the National Roads Authority has responsibility for road design and approval. When money is available it should be spent where road designs have been approved and accepted. There should be clarification of what is involved.
I dislike the term, park and ride. The term is American and the service is provided in towns in the United States. The term has different connotations here and is the butt of too many jokes. Perhaps we should do as we did in many other cases and use an Irish translation — fág agus taisteal. The Irish language is clear in its uniqueness in that it clarifies what is meant by particular words.
I thank all Deputies who contributed to the debate, particularly the Labour Party, Democratic Left and the Green Party for their support. I am disappointed none of the Independent Deputies saw fit to rate public transport on their agenda. I note the Taoiseach and his cohorts have not attended the debate. This issue should be put at the top of the political agenda. One gets the mistaken impression that the Government is doing something about this issue. The only thing the Government did was stop the Luas project and reallocate the money to some urgent projects. After the Cabinet decision in May, we waited patiently for the Atkins report on Luas which suggested Luas should proceed overground. The Government went into a huddle and came out with a hybrid that Luas should go underground. We do not know what type of roller coaster there will be once St. Stephen's Green is dug up. When we get into this black hole we do not know what it will cost.
Do not worry, it will never happen.
That is the truth of it. We were told that people from the Orient, the Japanese, were going to invest in it. Where are they now? In October the Minister told us she had the solution to the financial need which we set at £1.5 billion. CIE was about to sell property. We investigated that matter and between £25 million and £40 million per year will come from that. The Minister has no policy. In November the Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, announced a £56 million Exchequer investment in public transport. Today, for the first time ever, the Exchequer is providing direct capital. A radio station telephoned me with the good news. I read through it and was quite pleased. It mentioned the provision of new buses, 16 new DART carriages and 20 suburban rail cars. I then realised this looked familiar. This was the same announcement which was made in May, June and July with the £14 million taken from Luas and spent yet again. When not waffling, the Minister is trying to convince the people she is doing something.
In this debate the Minister made two announcements. She is awaiting a report from Judge O'Leary. Not only has she had the Atkins report, three CIE reviews, DTO reviews and a Luas watchdog report, but she announced two further reports, an Arthur Anderson consultancy study to look at the financing of Luas and an ESRI report on transport needs commissioned by the Department of Finance. The Government has no proposal, except that in January there will be bus and rail increases. Deputy Stagg referred to zero fares on certain routes on the Continent. The Minister did not seem to remember the script she had read out that she was pleased to announce she would respond favourably to the request by CIE for the first increase in bus fares since 1991. She mentioned a rate of inflation of 19 per cent.
I am concerned the Government has not grasped the enormity of the problem. I fear that by the time we next debate this matter there will have been a serious derailment. We will be able to show in the coming weeks that what IRMS actually said was that three railway routes — Mallow-Tralee, Athlone-Claremorris and WaterfordRosslare — should have been closed, such was the intolerable level of risk. That is extremely serious. In addition, the DART will not run at night and no extra buses will be available until at least 1 May 1999. No extra DART carriages will be available until the next century. The seats are being taken out of DART trains because there is insufficient space to carry people.
This Government must take a big, bold, imaginative step. I have outlined a simple way of dealing with this issue; the Government has already decided on the IPO for Telecom Éireann — 50.1 per cent of the company is for sale and that sale will yield in the region of £1.5 billion. That figure would provide the lion's share of the extra capital required. The Luas project will not receive EU funding because of the Objective One regionalisation decision. The Minister for Public Enterprise is waffling and the Minister for Finance is being evasive. There is no coherent strategy in this area. More reports are being carried out and bus fares are increasing.
This issue must be placed at the top of the political agenda as it will not go away. It is taking commuters longer to bring children to school and to get to work. That is unacceptable.
Amendment put.
The Dáil divided: Tá, 74; Níl, 62.
Tá
- Ahern, Dermot.
- Kenneally, Brendan.
- Ahern, Michael.
- Kirk, Séamus.
- Ahern, Noel.
- Kitt, Michael.
- Andrews, David.
- Kitt, Tom.
- Ardagh, Seán.
- Lawlor, Liam.
- Blaney, Harry.
- Lenihan, Brian.
- Brady, Johnny.
- Lenihan, Conor.
- Brady, Martin.
- McDaid, James.
- Brennan, Séamus.
- McGennis, Marian.
- Briscoe, Ben.
- McGuinness, John.
- Browne, John (Wexford).
- Martin, Micheál.
- Byrne, Hugh.
- Moffatt, Thomas.
- Callely, Ivor.
- Molloy, Robert.
- Carey, Pat.
- Moloney, John.
- Collins, Michael.
- Moynihan, Donal.
- Cooper-Flynn, Beverley.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Coughlan, Mary.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Cowen, Brian.
- O'Dea, Willie.
- Daly, Brendan.
- O'Donoghue, John.
- Davern, Noel.
- O'Flynn, Noel.
- de Valera, Síle.
- O'Hanlon, Rory.
- Dennehy, John.
- O'Keeffe, Batt.
- Doherty, Seán.
- O'Malley, Desmond.
- Ellis, John.
- O'Rourke, Mary.
- Fahey, Frank.
- Power, Seán.
- Fleming, Seán.
- Reynolds, Albert.
- Flood, Chris.
- Roche, Dick.
- Foley, Denis.
- Ryan, Eoin.
- Fox, Mildred.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Gildea, Thomas.
- Smith, Michael.
- Hanafin, Mary.
- Treacy, Noel.
- Harney, Mary.
- Wade, Eddie.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Wallace, Dan.
- Healy-Rae, Jackie.
- Wallace, Mary.
- Jacob, Joe.
- Walsh, Joe.
- Keaveney, Cecilia.
- Woods, Michael.
- Kelleher, Billy.
- Wright, G. V.
Níl
- Ahearn, Theresa.
- Hogan, Philip.
- Barrett, Seán.
- Kenny, Enda.
- Bell, Michael.
- McCormack, Pádraic.
- Belton, Louis.
- McGahon, Brendan.
- Boylan, Andrew.
- McGinley, Dinny.
- Bradford, Paul.
- McGrath, Paul.
- Browne, John (Carlow-Kilkenny).
- McManus, Liz.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Mitchell, Gay.
- Burke, Liam.
- Mitchell, Jim.
- Burke, Ulick.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Carey, Donal.
- Neville, Dan.
- Clune, Deirdre.
- Noonan, Michael.
- Connaughton, Paul.
- O'Keeffe, Jim.
- Coveney, Simon.
- O'Shea, Brian.
- Crawford, Seymour.
- O'Sullivan, Jan.
- Creed, Michael.
- Owen, Nora.
- Currie, Austin.
- Penrose, William.
- D'Arcy, Michael.
- Perry, John.
- De Rossa, Proinsias.
- Quinn, Ruairí.
- Deasy, Austin.
- Rabbitte, Pat.
- Deenihan, Jimmy.
- Reynolds, Gerard.
- Durkan, Bernard.
- Ryan, Seán.
- Farrelly, John.
- Sargent, Trevor.
- Finucane, Michael.
- Shatter, Alan.
- Fitzgerald, Frances.
- Sheehan, Patrick.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Stagg, Emmet.
- Gilmore, Éamon.
- Stanton, David.
- Hayes, Brian.
- Timmins, Billy.
- Higgins, Jim.
- Upton, Pat.
- Higgins, Joe.
- Wall, Jack.
- Higgins, Michael.
- Yates, Ivan.
Tellers: Tá, Deputies S. Brennan and Power; Níl, Deputies Barrett and Sheehan.
Amendment declared carried.
Motion, as amended, put and declared carried.