Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee. Many of the questions I was going to ask have been well covered at this stage, but I do have one query for Dr. Caulfield. I understand he co-authored a report in 2019 in regard to something called the DiSTRaCT project. I think it might be very helpful to the committee if Dr. Caulfield could provide us with a copy. I just read the abstract and the contents appear to be applicable, so I wonder if the report would be something which could be useful to the committee in its deliberations.

I also welcome the statement in regard to EVs and the replacement of cars now on the roads as not being a solution to curbing the nine extra days it was mentioned that Dubliners spend in traffic. The solution instead is pumping billions of euro into public transport. I am interested in the paper Dr. Caulfield co-authored in the context of looking at strategies such as carpooling, among other things, and how that might work in the Irish context.

I thank Ms Graham for her contribution. My question in regard to the modelling referenced earlier was already covered by Deputy Whitmore.

Is our public transport fleet capable of reducing its carbon emissions by 51% in nine years? That is critical to the overall discussion. I appreciate Ms Graham's responses thus far. I have another question that is not related solely to the fleet. Are capital projects sufficiently carbon-proofed to provide the reductions we require, notwithstanding the NTA's lack of modelling at this point in time?

To be very parochial, Dr. Caulfield mentioned the metro as a 20-year project, one that has been in train for 20 years. In fact, it is 47 years since it was first proposed by Forfás in 1974 as a rail link to Dublin Airport. Ms Graham mentioned it will be important to all Dubliners not only those living on the northside. The development of that project has taken many years in many different forums, including a more recent one. I will be very interested to know if it will be big enough to cater for the growth we can expect, particularly with changes in land use. That might be a difficult question. However, if we are to build up rather than out, will the metro be large enough at 20,000 persons per direction per hour to serve the corridor proposed and potentially other lines?