Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That was the first statistic of my own. I welcome everybody and apologise for being late. I am new to my role as Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on transport. I know Mr. Ferrie via Twitter, but I have not met the rest of the witnesses yet. Our policy on transport has not changed despite the change of personnel. The witnesses will be familiar with the policy and that will continue to be pliable, to the extent that the witnesses or the wider cycling lobby might have views on issues that concern us. I start my contribution by stating I have the utmost respect for Deputy Eamon Ryan and his party's long-standing research on climate change and sustainable solutions. When it comes to a road, however, we could strip out the entire HSE budget, dedicate it all to sustainable transport and the country's problems would be solved overnight.

It is not realistic, however, even from the leafy suburbs of Ranelagh and south Dublin, to state that we should not build certain roads. There are infrastructure deficits all over the country and any Government, of whatever type, will have to be conscious and mindful of that reality, whether that Government is led by Taoiseach Ryan, O'Dowd, Catherine Murphy or whomever. We will always have competing priorities. It is a matter of getting cycling a higher priority within the agenda, as opposed to not building a certain road for €100 million or €250 million. If it were that simple, that would have been done when Deputy Eamon Ryan was a Minister. He knows better than anybody, however, that the cake is only so big and every Minister in every Department will always want all of it for themselves, if they could get away with it. Things do not work like that, unfortunately.

Regarding the concept of a transport czar, Mr. Ferrie referred to 30 agencies being responsible for transport in Dublin alone. How would it be possible to get anything done? Whether we refer to a czar, a chancellor, an emperor or a Taoiseach, however, the truth is that we already have one, namely, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. Sadly, what we also have is drift. The Government is no longer acting as the Executive in the area of transport. I am not being political in stating that because this drift goes back to when we were in Government ourselves and back into the 1980s. Governments are now expensive commentators. References are made to a matters being for Dublin City Council, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the NTA and-or Dublin Bus. These are regarded as matters for everybody but us and there is no leadership. The attitude is that we are not experts and that therefore we will be guided by the expertise. This ensures that we get to kick something down the road for so long for review and examination that the initial data will be out of date by the time it comes to a conclusion and we will get to review it again. Within that whole process, we have plausible deniability and are able to defer any budget expenditure. That is greatly frustrating.

We are striving for the 10%, but where is it in this year's budget? I mean no disrespect to the Senator I am about to quote, but Senator Lombard, in a press release after the budget, stated that €114 million was going to be spent on cycling infrastructure this year, including the greenway and two urban programmes, the smarter and active travel initiatives, etc. Do the witnesses have a view on that claim? Looking at 2018, research from the organisations represented here showed we had spent about 32.26% of funds on the sustainable transport capital side, within the land transport capital budget. If that breakdown was applied to this year, then the total budget for land transport capital spending is €1.82 billion, 32.26% of that is about €587 million on the sustainable side of the equation and 3%, which was the percentage we got in 2018, is €17 million. If we add the greenways into that figure, which is as much tourism as it is transport, we max out at about €41 million. That is 2.25% of the total budget and that means we are going in reverse. I am interested in hearing the witnesses' opinion on that situation. Later, I will be asking the representatives from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the NTA to clarify how they categorise funding spent on cycling.

I turn now to integrating cycling into our public transport system. We all know the system is creaking at the seams and it is impossible to get a person on to it, never mind a bike. Where are we on addressing that issue from the perspective of the cycling organisations? If I want to cycle around Ireland, that involves a tourism aspect. Let us take the case, as well, where I want to commute into Dublin from Mullingar and bring my bike so that when I get to Connolly Station, I can cycle from there to St. Stephen's Green, for example. How are we measuring up in that context? That aspect leads us into parking and related issues at public transport hubs. Those are my comments and questions and I would like the witnesses to address them.