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

The Phoenix Park tunnel was always regarded as a temporary measure. With speeds and so forth, it does not equate with a DART underground. We already have a problem with capacity on surface rail. Without using below-ground capacity, there will always be that constraint.

I was a member of the Dublin transportation initiative in the early 1990s when a suite of measures was deemed necessary to make the city capable of functioning. The reason European funding was provided at the time under a particular programme was because Dublin was underperforming due to congestion. For example, Luas, metro and the DART underground proposals were all critical components in making the city function. The investment in the railways was from the 19th century where they are all disconnected from each other. The 20th century required pulling them together. We failed to do that in the 20th century and we are now going to fail to do it in the 21st century.

I was in Berlin recently, a city with a population of 4.5 million, a much larger population than Dublin, and did not see one traffic jam. It is because it has a network and not bits and pieces of a network. The DART underground is that critical missing piece for Dublin. I have to take issue with the Phoenix Park tunnel being equated with a substitute for DART underground. It simply is not. There is no understanding of the requirement of making this capital city work. The city and the region cannot work without that piece of the network. The ever longer traffic jams on the M1, the M4 and the M7, as pointed out by the Chairman, are a consequence of not having a proper public transport system in Dublin city.

The Minister has made a political decision on it and it is not part of the ten-year strategy. It is a disgrace that it is not.

I accept the Minister's point that he is not going to do anything about that this year, but I disagree that that is the way to go.