Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have undertaken an analysis of the budget. The budget is important because what we spend now on infrastructure is what happens in ten, 15 or 20 years time. The next three years is when the tap on infrastructure will be turned on. My reading of the three-year plan is that it is all about roads. That is the only area of transport we are investing in. Transport is important. Transport, land use and housing go together. If we are going to reduce sprawl, how can the Department justify an 80% or 90% spend on roads versus public transport? That is what we are doing. How does that match the strategy? How does it match the strategy if Dublin decides we are going to have to build a port tunnel? Where is the sustainability or the lack of sprawl in that? Page 134 refers to ports and how we have to improve southern port access. That is all IBEC talk about new roads and more roads. How can the Department be serious about the plan if investment in the future on transport is the same as it has been for the past three decades? It is all roads. How do we stop the sprawl if that is the plan?