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

An issue I have encountered in my area involves the design of new housing estates. The latter offer a great opportunity. Cycle routes are being built into the estates, but the provision tends to be fragmented and does not look at the total package. One ends up with nothing at either end of the estate or a conflict where there is permeability into an existing housing estate but no receiving infrastructure. That issue arises continuously. There are great opportunities to put new infrastructure in place but if it is not properly connected, it loses its value.

A couple of decades ago, a State agency carried out a costing on the loss of a life. That is quite controversial because one can never put a monetary value on a life. The figure was used in cost-benefit analyses of potential road upgrades to show the benefit of upgrading roads with bad accident profiles in order to prevent further loss of life. It is an awful way to measure things, but it worked in terms of upgrading some very poor quality roads. The relevant cost allocated was approximately IR£1 million - it goes back to pre-euro days. The cost-benefit analysis woke people up and brought home to them the economic value of such upgrades. Although it is an awful way of doing it, it gave a metric against which the cost and benefit of an upgrade could be measured.