Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair, in particular, and committee members for having this session, which is critically important. As they know, it is something in which I take a particular interest and pushed with members of the committee. I am very happy to see that it is happening today. As I said, it is critically important. I get the sense that many people in this room do not understand just how critically important it is.

We have a chronic situation with respect to illegal parking on bus lanes, cycle lanes and footpaths. Mr. Ferrie's point about the impact of this is that it ultimately deters people from walking, cycling or using the bus. One of the greatest challenges we have is to get people to use those modes of transport. Unless we take it very seriously when other road users impinge on people's ability to use those modes, we will not succeed in this great challenge we face. By the way, I do not want to say that this failure is simply down to An Garda Síochána. It would be wrong of me to say that. The failure is that of the Government and local authorities. We have to accept that this is failure. It is total failure and we need to sort it out.

I am very happy to hear from Mr. Buckley and I welcome my county compatriots to today's meeting. What Mr. Buckley described in Dooradoyle is repeated everywhere on practically every street in the country. I would like to see a trial in Dooradoyle but I would also like to see us get beyond trials very quickly because we are in this chronic situation. We can talk about the four Es of engagement, explaining, education and enforcement but the latter really has to happen now because it has not been happening. I welcome the earlier comments about the launch of the portal in 2024. It will be very interesting to hear how that is shaped. We have to get it right. Is there any legislative barrier to implementing that portal system? The road traffic Bill is going through the Oireachtas at present. We have to get that right. I want the representatives to tell us what is needed in that Bill, so we can help them get that portal.

On the discussion of the ANPR technology by Dublin Bus, I am very encouraged by the strong suggestion that we need this technology and we need to roll it out quickly to get the buses moving. I heard similar from Dublin Bus's colleagues in Bus Éireann at a private meeting I had with its representatives. I want to see us roll out this technology. It will make the jobs of gardaí easier if we do so. I want to know if there are barriers to it.

Fundamentally, I want everybody to understand that this is a chronic situation and we are at a point of total failure. We need to sort that out very quickly. I will use the remainder of my time, three and a half minutes, to give an opportunity to I Bike Dublin and Limerick Pedestrian Network to say anything else they need to say because their members have not had a chance to come in so much. I also want to allow a minute or 90 seconds for members of An Garda Síochána to respond.