Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Great.

With all of these lovely documents, I could paper my room. I was elected first elected a public representative in 1999. I cannot tell Mr. Doyle how many public transport documents I have seen in my 17 years. Smarter Travel Galway is, I would say without exaggeration, the 15th document for Galway alone. We have massive congestion on our roads at peak times. Galway, in particular, is a medieval city and it has massive traffic on its roads at peak times only and an unsustainable reliance on cars. I am not blaming the cars. We have put nothing in place, despite all of these documents.

I have here another lovely framework. I could not but praise the Government on Towards a National Planning Framework. I am actually praising the Government on this matter. The document states the framework will address matters, including "Promotion of sustainable settlement and transportation strategies in urban and rural areas including measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address the necessity of adaptation to climate change". It sounds wonderful. The reality is far from wonderful, despite all these lovely documents. In fact, for Galway city, there is an N6 project - another road. This is under the Department's watch, where we have one window of opportunity in regard to climate change. This is the last Dáil that will come up with meaningful action on climate change. Otherwise, it is too late. That is what all of the non-governmental organisations are telling us. Yet the solution in Galway is a road. All the public transport elements have been tagged onto it. In fact, only yesterday the news was that they have now delayed the public consultation period for the N6 project because of the massive volumes of submissions. I predict that the vast amount of those submissions state: "Please, do not go ahead with a road, please, go public transport and please, go light rail." That is my longest question and I ask Mr. Doyle to comment on it.