Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We will have enough time for the Deputy and I to have seven minutes each.

On transport-oriented development, we had a good session last week where we examined how we could rejuvenate town centres and bring life and vibrancy back into them. Part of that discussion focused on transport-oriented development. I note that several of the projects the LDA is working on already, at Limerick Colbert Station, Broadstone Garage and the Inchicore CIÉ works site, for example, are on transport corridors. I do not know if the agency is involved in the Heuston south quarter or in Cork. One of the points made regarding the LDA is that it can bring complex land deals together, operate at scale and has a budget and oversight. Does the LDA have the reach into the Department of Transport and the transport agencies to enable it to sit down with representatives of these bodies and point out that if the frequency of transport and rail services were doubled and the requisite budgets were made available to fund those transport services, it would make pockets and parcels of land along transport corridors sustainable locations for residential and other types of development? The issue now is that we do not have the transport links in such places. We have skeleton transport links. Will the LDA have the ability to do that? Has the LDA sat down with representatives of the Department of Transport or any of the transport agencies to look at sites around the country?