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

Yes, there will definitely be an opportunity for stakeholders to have input to the policy.

I might focus on the Deputy's first set of questions. If we are going to differ on this, we might as well be honest, upfront and clear on why there are differences. It is not anything ideological but I have clear views. The potential for Limerick is huge, but I think that potential will be best met with the development of public and sustainable transport, particularly using the existing rail network as the centre for development. It is encouraging that the NTA's work in Colbert Station provides a model for transformation of the city, addressing the housing crisis and providing economic development, which should be one of the first parts of the good work the authority is going to do.

If I were to look for a second example in Limerick, there are many examples I could highlight. I will be pushing for, and hope to deliver within this three-year timeframe I mentioned, plans, funding and everything to be agreed and in development for a railway station in Moyross. The reason behind that is there is a huge area of land, relatively underdeveloped, close to the city and within five minutes' walk of Thomond Park and Limerick Institute of Technology, and on a sustainable public transport route, which would be the epitome of good transport-led development. I could go on with other examples, particularly in Limerick, where there is real opportunity.

My clear view is that the northern distributor road would take Limerick in a completely different direction, into Clare. I acknowledge the college and the businesses upstream along the River Shannon will want to do that and will see that as an appropriate development, but the problem is we cannot do both. We cannot say we will build back the centre of the core of Limerick and build around public transport and, at the same time, say we will extend into Clare on a roads-based system, which can only accentuate or continue a dispersed, unsustainable development model. I have made that clear publicly before this committee and I will make it clear to the NTA and the council. I could not have been clearer with the council manager and will say the same to the councillors with great respect. I am clear in my view and I am not alone in that view. TII, which I have asked about it, clearly feels it is not the right road project, although the agency may be influenced by the fact, as was said at a previous meeting, that there would be a huge contractual cost to the existing owners of the tunnel under the River Shannon if we built a further crossing over it, which would be a result of that northern distributor road project. In a sense, it would go against NIFTI because, according to that framework, we should take into account what we have already built.

By going with the northern distributor road, we would completely undermine what was done in Limerick over the last ten or 20 years. More importantly, it undermines what could be done in terms of bringing life back into the centre and creating a really attractive urban core. The fact is that 3% of the population in Limerick is living in the historic core. What I would prefer to do, as I said earlier, is deliver the example of the BusConnects projects for Limerick. We are starting by including that funding this week for O'Connell Street. One could argue whether we want that cross-city route through O'Connell Street or via the bus station, which would be a good connection point. However, the NTA and others would come back and say that O'Connell Street and Limerick retail need a lift and that Limerick needs to create that special sense of place. I believe that is the way to go. Taking an alternative route on an unsustainable, uneconomic basis, without good transport planning in regard to the roads into County Clare, would be the last thing we should do in Limerick.