Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have some questions for Mr. O'Rourke. Under the heading of efficiency, he said in his opening statement that congestion is a symptom of economic success. He qualified that by noting that we have failed to plan for success. There has not been a gigantic increase in the population of Dublin city centre. Over three censuses, the increase has only been 13%. Most of the movements are generated in County Dublin or in the outer counties. That is under the national spatial strategy. The national spatial strategy is still in place, and very large amounts of land are being rezoned as we sit here. We are now moving in another direction with the national planning framework. One must diagnose the problem correctly. Land use and transportation planning must be in sync with each other.

What input into the national planning framework did Mr. O'Rourke make concerning the transition between those two very different strategies? Growth has mainly been in the suburbs. I do not refer to Dublin only as one should consider the growth in Cork, which has mainly been in the suburbs and in Limerick, things are exactly the same. Galway has bucked the trend, in that it is more consolidated in the centre. There are, however, major traffic problems in that city which have not been properly planned for and solutions have not been developed in a timely way. What input did Mr. O'Rourke have into initiatives like the national planning framework? What transition arrangements did he discuss?

For example, I would have thought the DART underground was a critical component in knitting in what has happened for the past 20 years and what will happen. That went all the way to railway order and then was pulled. Obviously it was a political decision that it was pulled. Would Mr. O'Rourke have prioritised that? We can see that the shared road space is causing all sorts of problems.

My next question is for Mr. Mullins on the Port of Cork. The Port of Cork is much bigger now and Mr. Mullins has described Cobh and Ringaskiddy. He spoke about there being future infrastructural development and I presume these are the locations he is mainly speaking about. What role will Cork harbour play in this? Will it have a central role? Who owns the land? It is very close to the city centre and is obviously a key location.

Can the Port of Galway succeed in the absence of transport solutions? Will investment be attracted where there is an inability to move goods to the port? What is being done and what networking is happening on this aspect?