Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach very much. I should stop now.

There is a lot of confusion and angst with regard to where we are with MetroLink and the Luas upgrade, both from people in places that have services and who want them to be better and from people in places that do not have services but who would like them. People almost seem to be competing with each other for funds, which they see as a scarce resource. There seems to be quite a bit of confusion and a lack of clarity with regard to the metro. The Dublin Commuter Coalition has said that the southbound Luas upgrade should never have been abandoned and should continue at least as far as Sandyford, if not Cherrywood. The Metro South West action group, which our witnesses will be very familiar with, are also campaigning. I do not like to see this as an either-or scenario. Both areas deserve public transport capacity. If the Luas has shown us anything - and I was lucky enough to have been a councillor at the time and to have been on the very first Luas service from Sandyford to St. Stephen's Green on the day of its launch in 2004 - it is that, if you build it, they will come. The modal shift has taken place in Dundrum to such a degree that many of the bus routes that went through Dundrum, such as the 48A, were abandoned and scrapped because they were no longer necessary. The Luas line acts as a magnet. People are willing to walk those ten, 12 or 15 minutes because they know what awaits them once they get there. It is an absolute credit to everybody involved with the Luas, including the Railway Procurement Agency, which has since been absorbed into TII, the NTA and so on. Everybody else now wants a Luas, which is a challenge. There are not necessarily corridors available for a Luas everywhere but that is where metro and underground services come in.

I am often asked why the upgrade is to stop at Charlemont rather than at Stephen's Green. Why bring it that far and stop rather than going to a more central location in the city? I am sure some of my colleagues will come in on this as well. I am looking at a live application for permission to build 881 apartments on a single site at the old Dundrum Village Centre. There is an endless amount of development happening at Cherrywood and very significant development in Sandyford. That is before considering the mental hospital site, 700 student apartments to be built on the Goatstown Road and other developments. There is an enormous amount of development happening on the existing Luas green line.

There is also an enormous amount of development happening in Terenure, Harold's Cross and out towards Knocklyon and Firhouse. People there have the red line far away from them on one side and the green line far away on the other but there is very little between outside of BusConnects. BusConnects has a place but it does not have the same reliability of journey time and never can unless there are dedicated bus corridors. The 46A, which has the best bus corridor in the country - I was lucky enough to be a councillor representing an area covering a long stretch of that corridor from Cabinteely as far as Belfield - is a very good service but fares must be taken and other things happen on roads that do not generally happen on railway lines.

The Dublin Commuter Coalition's opening statement, which is to be delivered later and which the witnesses may or may not have seen, indicates that this plan is less ambitious than the last plan. It has played down what was being offered under the last plan. We are talking about Luas upgrades in 2042. Before the pandemic, the green line was full. If it was full before all of this development in Sandyford, Cherrywood and Dundrum is done, it will be much worse when those developments are complete if people are willing to use public transport. People want to use public transport but, if it is not available or if it is full, they will get back in their cars. What is happening with regard to Charlemont and why? Why is there less ambition now that before?