Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is useful information. I thank Mr. Spratt for his presentation, which was important. In the context of priorities for investment in transport and projects generally, there are various frameworks and I am starting to lose track of all the acronyms around government at the moment. It is mind-boggling, but I understand they must exist in order for a strategic approach to be taken.

It is worth remembering that, already, 5 million people live in the State, and we are seeking over the next 20 years to prioritise investment to accommodate an increase of 1 million, while also recognising the necessity to decarbonise. I am somewhat concerned that the shift is wholly towards public transport. I accept that is not the case but we must be mindful of communities that already live and exist in the way they do. When we decarbonise and move from petrol and diesel to electric, those communities will still need significant roadways. The current crop of population, in many cases, will not move to public transport.

I understand that the patterns of development from here on will be in higher densities and brown-field sites in larger urban areas, with the capacity to utilise public transport, but we must also be mindful in our priorities of some of the projects in the more rural areas, where people live in a dispersed pattern and in villages and towns. Their experience at the moment is relatively poor in some cases, although there have been some tremendous advances. We cannot concentrate everything on the increase of 1 million citizens and forget, to some extent, about the difficulties that the existing 5 million have.

My colleague and others talked about the bypass of Killaloe, which is one such really important project. We all have concerns that it might just slip off the desk. When the current vehicular traffic is taken off the existing streets, these villages and towns will be given a chance to breathe, which will encourage more people to come back and to live within the villages, and will to some extent reduce the vehicular traffic. There is a chicken-and-egg scenario and we have to be careful with it. Mr. Spratt might comment on that.