Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best. I was due on at 2.57 p.m. but it is now 3.53 p.m. I wish the Minister had said that an hour ago or after I finished speaking. Not to worry. I will do my best. There is a lot in NIFTI but, although it is a new name, there were programmes and structures before. I again thank the officials for the presentation yesterday. There was previously the strategic investment framework for land transport, which considered projects. NIFTI makes sense. There is a lot of jargon in it. There are investment priorities, modal hierarchies and intervention hierarchies.

Deputy Crowe spoke about moving people from private to public transport. I will try to develop that point and ask how we get people from private and even public transport to active travel, with a particular emphasis on people in the school scenario, at both primary and secondary levels. The Minister knows Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown particularly well. The safe routes to school programme and many other initiatives are happening there, though not all of it has total buy-in yet. Some projects will get such buy-in but others will not. We have to get people early. I would nearly say we should be giving every primary school person the option of having a bike for a year for free and seeing how that works out. They would not be given a bike but allowed to hire it free of charge and asked to use it for a year to see if it will work. If they are using the bike, it can be sold to them. We need to get people trying to travel by bicycle.

The Minister and I are very familiar with the Goatstown Road-Clonskeagh Road. It is a great road but it is now almost over capacity in terms of bikes. It is difficult to get past people cycling more slowly than you are. A person may be cycling behind me and want to get past but will have to try to negotiate the wands and everything else. It is better than it was but we need to encourage people who have never cycled or who have not cycled in 20 or 30 years to say they actually do not need that. There are barriers. Those barriers are not just the provision of showering facilities at workplaces and that kind of thing. Leinster House is, by a significant margin, the safest place in Dublin to park a bicycle, although I suppose the Government Buildings complex is probably just as safe. However, there are many places in the city where you would not park a bicycle with the confidence that it will still be there when you return two or three hours later having gone for a meal or to the cinema or something. That is a significant barrier.

As a Government and as a State, we need to see what is stopping people from trying to cycle or walk. What is stopping them from moving up that modal hierarchy? The most reliable way in terms of time for me to get to Leinster House is by bicycle. If I can travel by bike, I do so. There are many people, however, who have never tried it. They do not have a bicycle, have not thought about it and may not qualify for the bike-to-work scheme. They would need to make an investment to get going. I refer to the motor tax pricing system. People are charged a significant amount of motor tax upfront. They pay a large amount in motor tax and car insurance and may have already outlaid €1,000 or €1,500 of a fixed cost. Even with fuel at its current price, that is a difficulty because people have already shelled out all that money. Although it may be difficult to do and account would need to be taken of people who have to travel long distances, we should consider whether motor tax should be based on usage rather than on the type of car. Under the current system, once the motorist has paid the tax on the car, there is an incentive to drive it, rather than it being the other way around.

Much of what I intended to raise has been covered. Last week, you could fly with Ryanair to Cyprus for €7.99. You certainly cannot get to Killarney by train for €7.99 at any time of the day or year. I am sure that not everybody on that plane was travelling for €7.99 but Irish Rail may need to get more competitive. Maybe it needs to run offers, such as a €10 or €5 fare to Killarney on Tuesday mornings, for example. That would ensure the train is full. I can drive to Killarney, although it would take me a while. However, it would also take me a significant amount of time to drive to Heuston Station and find parking, or even to get their by train, bus or bicycle. There would then be the issue of finding a safe space to park the bike or maybe take it on the train. Much of the time, issues such getting into town and getting out of town at the other end, such as if you are not travelling to Killarney town itself, for example, are the barriers that prevent people from moving up the hierarchy.

I welcome NIFTI as a concept. I understand we are relatively short on time and I want to allow time for the Minister to respond. We need to keep as many people as possible remote working. The Goatstown Road-Drumartin Link Road was mentioned this morning on AA Roadwatch. Many people who did not have to travel previously are now travelling again. They may feel they ought to travel into work or maybe they are being asked to do so. There are many people in back-office operations who have been able to work successfully from home and, as such, have not had to travel to work. Employers and employees, together with the Government, should try to ensure that people can continue to do so. Part of that relates to improving the provision of broadband, which the committee will discuss tomorrow.

We need to keep people off the roads if they do not have to be on them and ensure that people make shorter journeys as high up the hierarchy as possible. Sometimes motorists - I am a motorist too - forget that every single cyclist or person on public transport would, most likely, otherwise be travelling by car; either getting a lift or driving themselves. Their choice to cycle or use public transport frees up the roads for those who do need to drive and are not in a position to use alternatives. I welcome it. It is positive but there is a lot to do to get people out of their cars and onto public transport and, in addition, off public transport and onto bikes in particular. The more we can do in that regard, the better. It is to the benefit of everybody's health and, in particular, the Minister's priority in terms of decarbonisation. There is also the fact that catering for active travel is far cheaper than building a new road or railway line. Let us do as much of that as we can.