Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Traynor also mentioned express-type services. To which public services was he referring? Was it the existing Expressway service?

What targets does TransDev have to meet in order to reach its targets? What are the markers and how are they calculated? Has TransDev failed to reach any of them? What profit has Luas generated for TransDev so far? Where do those profits go? Do they go back into building on the infrastructure and expanding the service or do they go elsewhere? Given the congestion on the Luas at peak times, has TransDev plans to extend either the tram carriages or the trams themselves?

The NTA rail review appeared in August. Was the NTA surprised that there was no additional allocation in budget 2017, particularly in light of what it highlighted in the report? The representatives from the NTA said it is underfunded. By how much is it underfunded in terms of capital funding? Everything mentioned by the witnesses from the NTA comes back to lack of funding so how do they feel about the lack of additional funding and the continuing lack of investment? There is no evidence that any generous amount of funding will be forthcoming. In respect of recent media coverage of rural rail links, is cutting off rural links to predominantly isolated or underdeveloped rural parts of the country is a good policy for the NTA? Could the NTA give us an update on that? Representatives from the NTA spoke about 45,000 education-related passengers travelling into Dublin city on a daily basis. I know a certain percentage of that number would be college students but a large percentage would be primary and secondary school students.

Have the witnesses at any stage looked at initiating a proper school bus transport service with Dublin City Council, which would cut down vastly on those numbers? Are there plans for that? Clearly nothing major has been done on it. What are the reasons for that? A positive move like that would have huge implications by reducing numbers.

Mr. Brady of Dublin City Council talked about congestion and public transport. Has Dublin City Council any distinct plans for cycle lanes in Dublin? If yes, what stage are they at in planning? Do the witnesses from Dublin City Council think that €150 million investment is sufficient to carry out the plans it has for Dublin? It is on top of other investment money it is getting. Do the witnesses think that amount of €150 million is sufficient?

I thank Mr. Faughnan of the AA for his comprehensive and honest statement. He mentioned the notion of car pooling and that he had raised it almost a decade ago. Has he liaised with either Dublin City Council or the NTA on that? Have they been responsive to that? Have they been in favour of it? Has any sort of work plan been initiated?

Sin é. I apologise but I have to go.