Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 September 2006
11 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Transport when he expects the new Dublin transport authority to be established; the powers the authority will have over other transport agencies within Córas Iompair Éireann, the Railway Procurement Agency and the National Roads Authority; the implications the establishment of the new authority will have for staff within existing agencies such as the Dublin Transport Office. [29911/06]
Amharc ar fhreagra36 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Transport his plans in relation to the establishment of a Dublin transport authority; the transport functions it will have; the planning and development functions it will have; the bodies or authorities it will replace; and the bodies or authorities that will sit on its board. [30048/06]
Amharc ar fhreagra44 Mr. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport when a Dublin transport authority will be established. [29711/06]
Amharc ar fhreagra50 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Transport if he will report on the recommendation he received from a person (details supplied) on the putative transport authority which he requested from them in November 2005. [29698/06]
Amharc ar fhreagra69 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Transport the progress towards the setting up of the transport authority for Dublin. [29701/06]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 36, 44, 50 and 69 together.
As the House will be aware, I established a team, following the launch of Transport 21, to make recommendations on the establishment of a transport authority for the greater Dublin area. The team reported to me earlier this year. Since then, my Department has undertaken significant preparatory work and the matter has been considered by Government. As a result, the drafting of legislation establishing a Dublin transport authority is now at an advanced stage of preparation.
In my earlier reply to one of the Priority Questions, I indicated that the Government has decided that the regulation of the bus market and future decisions on the allocation of public subsidies for bus services in the greater Dublin area will be undertaken by the new Dublin transport authority. I will make an announcement on the other functions of the Dublin transport authority soon.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Purcell, issued a report yesterday on integrated ticketing. The cost to the taxpayer of this issue has been around €9 million so far, and it has been almost as many years in the making. We have nothing to show for all this, not even a smart card, except that the cost is rising on a daily basis. The Comptroller and Auditor General did not blame the operators and actors involved, including CIE, Dublin Bus, the Railway Procurement Agency and the private operators. He blamed the Government because there was nobody to co-ordinate the integrated ticketing system. He detected uncertainty in all those involved regarding the scale and nature of their roles in the Dublin transport network. The lack of a Government decision or anyone to co-ordinate critical transport issues in Dublin is creating traffic chaos. We discuss it every year but it has now reached the point where the suburbs of this city are unbearable.
When can we hope to see a transport authority in place? I see it is down for publication this term. If it does not have a statutory basis, will the Minister set up an authority that can co-ordinate the major traffic issues facing this city on an interim basis? This includes the port tunnel, the upgrade of the M50, integrated ticketing, buses and all the elements that need to be examined in this city. Can the Minister give the House a timescale, if not for a legislative procedure, then for an interim body?
The issue of integrated ticketing came to my attention shortly after I joined the Department of Transport. I found trying to deal with it deeply frustrating. It was not possible, for whatever reasons under the structure that was in place, to get the agencies to co-operate with each other. This was apparent, although I am not laying any blame.
There was a reason for this: bad governance.
Bad leadership.
This is a statement of fact. Following on from that I invited an independent group in to advise me on the best way forward and——
Resulting in more delays.
——under the Department of Finance guidelines a peer review was conducted on the project. The review group suggested setting up this establishment board, on which I have already moved, following its report. The board is under the chairmanship of a former Secretary General. It involves the chairman and all of the chief executives——
Is the Minister answering the question on integrated ticketing or the Dublin transportation authority?
One leads into the other. The Deputy spoke for five minutes about integrated ticketing and I am giving her the answers with regard to what is already happening.
I was using integrated ticketing as an example of the need for a co-ordinating body.
In response to the Deputy I have moved ahead and am not waiting for legislation. I have put an establishment board in place already. I will do the same with the Dublin transport authority. Once the legislation on it is published, I will put it in place, at least in shadow form, as I have done with many other bodies, so that it can get on with the work that is clearly required over a range of areas. Much of the work the authority will deal with is already happening. There are very good people already dealing with many of the areas. What we need now is a co-ordinated approach to some of the overlapping issues affecting the different bodies.
With regard to the issue of buses, integrated ticketing and many other areas, the procrastination surrounding the Dublin transport authority has been incredible.
The Deputy is being unfair. I am making all of the enormous decisions.
The authority was first promised in the programme for Government.
I can only speak for my two years as Minister.
A year later it was scrapped. The Minister was in Government at that time.
I know that and I am delivering.
The Minister is delivering promises, not action.
The Minister was serving in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
The Deputy will have nothing left to talk about by the time of the election. That is what is bothering her. It will all be done.
Deputy Cullen was in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and had direct responsibility for the promised Dublin transport and land use authority. The authority was a joint initiative between the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Transport. When that became too difficult, it was scrapped. Nothing happened for another two years and then, as an afterthought to Transport 21, the Minister came up with this idea.
It has been glaringly obvious for more than a decade, if not as far back as the 1980s——
Why did the Deputy's party not do something about it when it was in Government for three years?
When it was first proposed, the Labour Party took steps to——
It did not. It did nothing. It simply talked about it, as usual.
Its efforts were stymied by a Fianna Fáil led Government. We are now in a position where the Minister announces a major investment programme of €34 billion but there is no body to implement it. I have never heard such nonsense.
As a complete afterthought, the Minister then came up with this idea.
Deputy Shortall is being silly.
Under pressure, the Minister decided that he needed a body to implement the investment programme. He set up a high level group under Professor Margaret O'Mahony, which was fine. We all recognise her expertise in the area. The Minister received the group's report last March. It is now almost October and there has been no movement on it.
In an earlier reply, the Minister said that the second tranche of 100 buses for the Dublin market is to be allocated by the new authority. Bearing in mind that additional buses were needed yesterday and given that we have not even seen the promised legislation, will the Minister give us some idea of the timescale involved with regard to the publication and passage of the legislation and the establishment of the new authority? When will the authority be in a position to deal with the issue of the additional 100 buses? From the point of view of the passengers waiting for a bus on the side of the road this evening, it does not matter who is running the buses. They just want more buses but it seems that under this long-fingered proposal, it is likely to be at least the end of next year before the proposed Dublin transport authority is in a position to deal with the additional buses. Therefore, I ask the Minister to set out the timescale he has in mind.
I fundamentally disagree with some of the assertions made by the Deputy but I will leave that for another day. I am trying to get greater capacity in all modes of public transport and buses are a very important element of that. Following the Government meeting yesterday, we have made €30 million available immediately to Dublin Bus to acquire 100 new buses for next year.
I ask the Minister to tell us the timescale he has in mind rather than repeat what he has already said.
I said earlier, in response to another question, that the legislation based on the report on the Dublin transport authority is well advanced and almost complete. I have talked to the various bodies concerned and will continue to do so to bring it to a conclusion. In the meantime I will move to set up a board for the Dublin transport authority, in shadow form, as I did with the Road Safety Authority and other bodies, to allow it to get on with the process of dealing with some of the issues.
I agree with Deputy Shortall and want to see the opening of the market move very quickly. I want to see a smooth process of getting another 100 buses on to the market in Dublin through the private sector. I will do that over the coming months.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.
