Mr. Graham Doyle:

The Senator asked quite a few questions. I am a fellow Waterford person, so I am familiar with the road, the journey from Tramore and so on that she mentioned. Deputy Butler was also in attendance earlier.

The Senator's first point was right. If someone ditches a diesel or petrol car for public transport or a bike, the effect from a climate change perspective will be the same as switching to EVs. We have had many questions about EVs. More than 50% of emissions come from private cars. Given that our population is highly dispersed, many people will be reliant on cars where the settlement patterns make it difficult to provide public transport alternatives.

It is natural that a lot of the discussion tends towards these issues. I spoke about the levels of investment and the significant increases in public transport investment over the coming years. We have worked very hard on arguing for this investment and now that the funding is available we have to deliver, and this is a critical point. I thank the Senator for that observation.

In terms of smarter travel, the lost period of investment after 2009 is probably the most significant point. We are now back to investing heavily. Following last year's budget we were able to announce a more than doubling of our investment in public transport over a short number of years and we were able to invest in cycling. We have had specific questions on how much is invested in cycling. Quite often this is very difficult to state because there are various types of vehicles on the road and various programmes. A quality bus corridor can benefit cyclists. Some of the investment in the Luas has also done so. We are now able to say that this year and over the coming three years we have set aside €106 million or €110 million specifically for investment in city-based cycling. Over the same period we have specified €50 million to €55 million for greenways. With regard to BusConnects, which Ms Graham touched on in response to an earlier question, it is very difficult to say specifically how much of a more than €2 billion investment is for the cycle lane element but we can see that in the programme more than 200 km of improvements to existing cycling lanes and routes and new routes will be delivered. This is where the real game is at in terms of cycling for commuting. We have seen significant improvements, particularly in Dublin-----