Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is not impossible for us to deliver these improvements. First and foremost, we must provide the infrastructure.

Regarding the Luas and the wider greater Dublin area transport strategy review, what we do regarding the metro on the south side has been one of the most contentious and complicated issues. The original plans to connect it to the green line near Beechwood Avenue became untenable because we had switched from what was going to be a driver system to a driverless, automated and segregated system. As Senator Horkan knows, the green line was not designed in that way, so it would have meant effectively closing it for two or three years to reconfigure it. That would not have been tenable. My view is that we could have extended the metro from south of Charlemont near Ranelagh in either direction - south west, or south east towards UCD and on to Sandyford from there. My personal view is that they have come up with a good engineering solution which, rather than continuing as an underground option, involves a light rail option to UCD and from there on to Sandyford, as well as a light rail option to the south west, as far as Terenure and Knocklyon.

What will happen with that is the increased amount we expect on the green line route will in part be catered for by the light rail line running to UCD. There is huge demand for that. It will reduce the increased demands we expect on the existing green line and make it work.

In the meantime it is not as if we are doing nothing. All 26 trams on the green line are now 55 m long and eight new trams have just been purchased. There is a significant increase in capacity on the green line and that, combined with the development of remote working, which will change some of the demand patterns, will leave a structured approach to the south side of the city with much more extensive use of light rail lines that really works. My only regret, and it is a deep regret, is that the original design for the green line was to have a cycleway either side of it. That was taken out at the very last minute because we felt we would be upgrading it to metro status and we did not want cyclists running beside metro trains. If there was any way of bringing that back, we should, as it would also cater for a large volume of demand. It will not be easy, given it was taken out originally in 2002.

The green line will work. The rail solutions formulated by the NTA for Dublin will work. I was not here for it but I believe there was a major hoo-ha about timelines and delivery. That will depend, to a certain extent, on how quickly and effectively the various agencies deliver projects. There should be real certainty now that the rail and transport-based solution is the way to go. That is whether we are talking about the south side or Navan. There is a variety of projects. To my mind, they should be progressed and let us get them done. How quickly they can be done depends on the planning system and how effectively the existing budget can be used. That is why we need efficient use of the budget.