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

We are not meeting 2:1 because we have a massively long list of road projects, local and national, which have been many years in planning and preparation. Many are close to construction or in construction and there is ability to deliver on all those. It is not the same in public transport. We have not had a history or policy of promoting public transport in the State. As a result, projects are only now coming to the planning phase, including DART+, metro and BusConnects. Without being critical of any individual, there was a mistake in allowing a gap to open where we had no public transport projects in construction in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick or around the country.

We are turning that around. The Connecting Ireland bus programme is one of the most significant and important new projects in public transport in the history of the State. The BusConnects projects for all five cities are hugely significant and will be delivered. Going back to what I said in the previous discussion, we can start delivering some of those elements. We are already starting to roll them out. Irish Rail was starved of investment over the years but that is being reversed. There are the likes of the DART+ programme and the Cork metropolitan rail. We will build DART for Cork in a short number of years. I think we can do the same in Limerick.