Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Fitzgerald. I share the sentiments expressed by previous speakers about Mr. Gerry Murphy. I ask the Chairman to pass on to him the good wishes of members.
On 3 January The Irish Timesreported that €225 million had been spent on shelved Dublin transport projects. As an economist, I have a concern that these projects have a life of their own. Mr. Fitzgerald referred to the need for a regulator. What happens is that a decision is taken to proceed with a project because many hundreds of millions of euro have been spent on it. Why have we not heard of it? I hope the National Transport Authority will have a strict standard of investment appraisal to stop unilateral schemes from taking off. Letters issued to 5,000 home and business owners in Dublin city centre about compulsory purchase orders for the underground project. I do not believe the Oireachtas has ever discussed whether this project would be worthwhile. Nevertheless, it has taken on a life of its own.
The Heuston to Connolly rail link, to which Mr. Fitzgerald referred, will proceed in 2016. It appears to be an attractive project, given that the track and electronic signalling are in place and the tunnel is maintained with concrete sleepers. We have been paying for this line, if one likes, through the infrastructure budget. Running trains on it, therefore, is a good idea. The project will also open up Phibsboro, Cabra, the Phoenix Park, including Garda Headquarters and the zoo, and the nearby Army barracks and facilitate the running of trains from Drogheda to Newbridge, thereby linking the system. The budget appears to be low by comparison with that for some of the other projects mentioned. Given that the project has so much going for it, could it proceed quicker, especially as the track is ready? We could use the rolling stock located at the back of the Point Depot and for which we do not have a market, although I understand it may be gentrified for the Orient Express, or we could take rolling stock from a line that is not used much.
On tendering, it is the job of the regulator to introduce some novelty on this issue. Since the court cases involving Pat Nestor and others, the number of buses travelling in each direction between Dublin and Galway has increased to approximately 60 a day. The service has been a fantastic success. Mr. Fitzgerald referred to the development of public transport. There are approximately 59 more bus drivers working on the Dublin-Galway route than when the monopoly was still in place. I looked at an old timetable for the service which shows only one bus ran in each direction every day and it travelled through Mullingar. I have observed among my students that the bus service from Dublin to Galway is the preferred choice of young people. It operates 24 hours a day and is a major success that does not need a public subsidy. There are signs that a similar service could be provided on the Dublin-Belfast and Dublin-Limerick routes. These options were not available before the establishment of the regulator because the Department of Transport had to look after the incumbent. The proposal for 10% competitive tendering could have dramatic results based on the experience of the Dublin-Galway service.
Deputy Dessie Ellis referred to the possibility of extending the Luas to Finglas. What about extending it to Shankill at the other end? This was the original intention, but it appears to have been lost somewhere along the way. Extending the line to Shankill would provide for integration and would not cost very much. Is it worth considering that idea?
Studies show that the quality bus corridors from Chapelizod and Palmerstown to Heuston Station and from Malahide and Stillorgan work very well. The average speeds achieved on these routes are faster those achieved on most heavy rail services and the DART line.

This needs to be brought out more for people to understand how successful these quality bus corridors, QBCs, are. Separation of the QBCs adds to cost and can make them inflexible. Other drivers do not tend to intrude into them. Sometimes one does not need a 24-hour QBC and many of them are not used on Sundays. Is there really a return on putting in barriers to separate them from the rest of the road? To give credit to motorists, the majority observe the rules governing QBCs.

An applicant for a taxi licence must do a written examination on geographical knowledge. We pointed out to the Minister recently in the Seanad that for a journey from Limerick city to nearby Birdhill, County Tipperary, the taxi driver would have been required to do two written examinations in two counties. Sat Nav would tell a taxi driver the directions. Are these examinations unnecessarily complex? As Mr. Fitzgerald knows, Mr. Paul Gorecki is a critic of the unnecessary barriers erected in the taxi industry, he feels, at the behest of encumbent taxi licenceholders against newcomers. He pointed to the high costs of providing a wheelchair accessible vehicle and requiring written examinations when Sat Nav would suffice. Does it matter for a taxi driver based in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon, where the Ulster Bank in Belmullet, County Mayo, is located? The more public transport we get, the more its share will grow. The encumbent operators, however, have been successful in devising ways of keeping new entrants out.

I wish Mr. Fitzgerald well in his renewed term. The Department of Finance guidelines on projects required that all projects involving funding over €20 million should be referred to the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has accumulated nearly €225 million on projects. Many of these seem to have a life of their own, providing a living for the guys carrying out the projects but not translating into anything on the ground that people could use. This needs to be corrected. The NTA is correcting this legacy of the Celtic tiger where projects grew and grew. It is important to switch them off as the benefits will never be commensurate to the projects’ costs.