Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation.

I echo the comment made about the need for visibility for the charging network for electric vehicles. I concur with other speakers, in particular Deputy Lahart, that charging points need to become normalised and as frequent as bus stops. They need to be part of every street in every town and village to give motorists a feeling of security. Having chargers in view would have a psychological effect and give people a sense that they can rely on the charging network and will not be left abandoned somewhere in the middle of the night.

Transport emissions are still increasing, year on year, even though we are trying to encourage electric vehicles. We do not seem to be making progress. One of the reasons may be the fibs we were told by car companies about the supposed clean emissions of diesel engines. It is concerning that emissions keep increasing.

I obviously take a Dublin centric view of transport, for which I apologise to Deputy Pringle and other members. Some 500 buses in the Dublin Bus fleet are to be converted to lower emission vehicles. What fuel will they use?

This ties in to the BusConnects proposals put before the people of Dublin for the revamp of their bus services. It seems the programme will be pushed out to 2020 or 2021 because of the overwhelming number of submissions made on the plan. More than 20,000 submissions were made by Dublin people. This could be viewed negatively in that it creates a considerable workload but it is also a promising development. A number of these submissions raise questions about sustainable bus transport in the city.

As I stated at one of the public consultation meetings on BusConnects, it would be a missed opportunity not to introduce electric vehicles and buses when BusConnects is being rolled out in whatever form eventually emerges. I hope it provides certainty on bus journey times within Dublin. Progress on electric vehicles would be positive for the city as it help us keep Dublin at least moderately clean.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, attended an environmental conference today. He pointed out that the number of landfills around Dublin had decreased from 127 in 2011 to two large sites now. We talked about excess waste going into the black bin and that going into landfill. Landfill sites are set to be eliminated. I am not sure whether this is the area of expertise of the witnesses. I visited a recycling plant and I am not convinced that we are recycling all the items we carefully place in our bins. Is there any possibility of using landfill sites for biofuel production? Would the NTA buy these fuels? Maybe that is a question for a different agency.

On park-and-ride facilities, the Red Cow is chock-a-block every day, yet when the proposal for a new national children's hospital was before An Bord Pleanála, car parking was to be downgraded on the St. James's campus and people were directed to use the Red Cow park-and-ride facility. Staff and patients, particularly children, were told to park at the Red Cow and use the Luas to access the hospital campus. The Red Cow facility has exceeded capacity and many people cannot access it. Most people do not bother trying and park instead on the streets surrounding the hospital, which causes further chaos in residential areas. Are there plans to increase capacity at the Red Cow park-and-ride facility? How would the NTA go about doing that? Obviously, it would have buy a large amount of land to build car parks?