Dr. Diarmuid Torney:

I thank the Chair for the question. The governance context in which Ireland and other European countries operate is one whereby for more than 30 or 40 years we have essentially hived off policymaking functions from central government Departments to State agencies. Ireland is by no means unique in this regard. This comes to the question about structured reform. Ms Graham might have different views to me on this. Suggestions have been made in the past about a potential merger between the NTA and TII to bring more coherence between the roads and public transport.

In terms of the mandates, the challenge is that we have a legacy of governance institutions that were set up in a period before climate change was the central priority in policymaking that it is now. There are good reasons for setting up governance bodies at arm's length from government. However, when we then fundamentally or significantly change the goals of policymaking it makes it harder for central government to steer the various governance bodies. In this context, consideration could be given to revising the legal mandates of the governance actors in the transport sector. It would need to be done with caution, with a view to avoiding unintended consequences. I would not recommend simply taking a red pen and striking out or adding new language in an ad hocway but revising these legal mandates would be a useful step to consider.