Dr. Laura Devaney:

The storytelling around this is important, as is the framing of it. The Chairman mentioned the increased cost for freight. There are huge cost savings that can be associated with many of the initiatives and solutions that we have put in place. For example, mandatory eco-driving reduces fuel costs, as well as emissions, and has other co-benefits. I welcome the inclusion of the freight sector. We are all in this together. Dr. Tara Shine referred to us as collaborative humans. Let us stop talking about detached stakeholders. We advocate a governance approach that would include these sectors in the decision making and in the solutions.

On Deputy Catherine Murphy's point regarding the funding of large projects and essential public transport investment, the parliamentary process in holding public sector bodies accountable could also seek to move us beyond short-term planning so that these one-off projects such as BusConnects or MetroLink are connected in the transport landscape rather than considered in isolation. What emerged in our research from within the sector was that planning in transport was planning on the hoof. We developed the Luas on two separate lines. Why was that not connected? The Luas will be rejigged again in order to facilitate the metro. There is need for something that takes us beyond the short-term political cycles and this longer-term vision, which is part of the transformative change that Deputy Coppinger referred to that needs to be embedded in the system for sustained climate action and that it is a long-term focus for these big projects and that it is not just in isolation.