Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

TII came before the committee two or three weeks ago and provided us with a glossy brochure of road projects throughout the country with a massive, eye-watering price tag on many of the road proposals. This made me think that if even a small proportion of that money was put towards proper public transport projects, we could achieve many our objectives in terms of getting people from place to place.

When we talk about transport, we are not only talking about people getting from one place to another for work during rush hour. We are also talking about giving people access to recreation and education and those who do not own cars the ability to travel further and access many more benefits.

As currently proposed, would the national development plan cut emissions? We now have an objective to cut carbon emissions by 7% per annum and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. If we proceed with projects that lock in carbon emissions, that release a lot of carbon at construction stage and that lock in the users of those projects, we will lock ourselves into high-carbon emission production for many years. We cannot continue on like that.

The Minister spoke earlier about optimising existing assets. One of the assets we have in this country which we do not optimise enough is our railway network. Under the old railway network, there were many more lines resulting in far less dependence on cars. We have to start shifting that balance back again. We are always going to have cars. We are not anti-car but we must look at optimising the assets we have.

We talk about the electrification of projects. The DART+ programme, which includes the electrification of lines, is ambitious and to be welcomed. The programme extends north as far as Drogheda. Perhaps it should go beyond that. To the west it will reach to Hazelhatch, Maynooth and possibly beyond. While we have that expertise in the country installing and constructing that electrified network, we should consider electrifying different parts of the network, such as those around Limerick or Cork, or extending the programme to Wicklow. As we look at these rail electrification projects, I ask the Minister to consider how they could be expanded while we have that expertise and while construction is up and running under the DART+ programme.