Ms Tatiana Samsonova:

I will come in on the transport side. We agree that on many peripheral and rural routes, private cars are indispensable. That is for sure. There is a need to invest more in rural programmes and I know there is Local Link. The Deputy also stated that in urban areas, public transport is heavily subsidised and asked where we can get that money.

There are ways of diversifying funding sources, especially if we consider land value capture mechanisms. The UK levies a specific amount on new developments that benefit from Crossrail, for example. Those that benefit more pay more and those that benefit less pay less, but they still pay a levy, and that has helped to fund the project. The same applies to business rates supplements in respect of the rates applied to commercial businesses that benefit from the construction of new infrastructure. The mass transit railway, MTR, in Hong Kong is another example.

This is one of the approaches that could liberate funds and cross-fund rural areas and necessary services, in particular demand-responsive transport. It is difficult to make public transport more competitive than cars in an environment where there is low density, but that brings us to the point that there is a need to promote more compact developments. Some shifts are already being made on that front. Ireland is no exception - environments with low-density developments and rural areas are problematic in this context everywhere. We argue that there is a need for additional investment, especially if one of the directions Ireland wants to go in is towards substituting car trips, in particular for local journeys, with public transport.