Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Iompóidh mé ar an mBéarla anois. Tá mé níos compordaí ag labhairt Gaeilge ach labhróidh mé Béarla.

I thank the Minister for attending the joint committee. I have a couple of big points as well as one or two smaller ones I would like to ask him about. The primary purpose of transport is to connect people and communities. By doing so, one empowers them to create business, work together and socialise. That is a key part of our primary purpose, but one must also look at urban versus rural areas, as some of our colleagues mentioned earlier. The challenges facing urban areas are not necessarily the same as those facing rural areas because people may not be as closely knit. Large industries and businesses want to locate in urban areas, not rural ones.

The Minister and ourselves have an obligation to have a balanced transport portfolio throughout Ireland. Will the Minister update us on his thoughts, or the Department's thoughts, concerning rail connectivity to Dublin Airport? Dublin is the only major capital city in Europe without direct rail access to its airport. There is not much point in having discussions and spending a lot of money on consultants to look at an extra runway or terminal unless we can get those people out of that terminal. Does the Minister have a view on the greater macroeconomic transport infrastructure in that regard?

My second point concerns rural Ireland and the comments by my colleague, Senator O'Mahony. We are national parliamentarians and are not meant to be local, but I will refer to Galway because it is really important. I ask the Minister and his departmental officials to examine the Galway bypass and work with Galway City Council and Galway County Council on this critical matter. It takes me longer to go from Spiddal to the far side of Galway at the racecourse than from there to Dublin, so it is a huge issue.

There was a delegation here yesterday from Connemara and Galway County Council concerning the N59 connectivity to Clifden. Earlier speakers referred to employment and unemployment. There has been over 23% unemployment in Connemara for the past six or seven years. God knows, many of them would love to keep their jobs at the salary level they had eight years ago if they could, but they have not. It is a major issue in rural Ireland, so the Minister's Department is key to that transport infrastructure.

In Causeway in Kerry there is a small company called Dairymaster. It is the third largest manufacturer of milking machines in the world. There is a company in Cavan called ATA, whose chief executive officer, CEO, is Mr. Peter Cosgrove. They are the largest manufacturer of tungsten carbide burs in the world. That is what we have in Ireland. Our assets are our people but they must have connectivity. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is critical to jobs, infrastructure and living in urban and rural Ireland.

In 2011, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, produced a national travel survey. The summary of its results stated that people spend roughly eight hours per week travelling to and from work. That is one full day per week spent commuting. They estimate that the figure has now risen to ten hours per week, with 75% of those journeys by car. One would need to analyse it to see why that is happening. My figures, which are subject to correction because I only went through them last night, show that 4% of people travel to and from work by bus. If that is a fact, we need to examine why that is the case. We should analyse it scientifically and come up with a result.

As regards the effectiveness of boards, I have had the privilege of serving on a number of State boards. There should be a review or audit mechanism every two or three years for State boards to see if they are still fit for purpose. That is not to impugn the individuals on State boards. Every individual on the State boards with which I have been involved was 110% committed. They are not doing it for the money but because of their passion for and commitment to our country of which we are all very proud.

Many people are reluctant to work on State boards because of the responsibility and accountability involved under the various Companies Acts, particularly the most recent one. There is also a perception that they could be tarnished if an issue arises concerning a State board, so that is a problem.