Ms Marie Donnelly:

I thank the Senator for her questions. She pinpointed one of the areas that is most difficult to deal with, namely, people's sense of entitlement to use a car when, where and how they want to. That is the message we are communicating in our recommendation on road space allocation. It is not a popular message. We have seen that in the media when there is a suggestion either to put in a bus lane, take away parking at the side of a street or make a street one-way. People become very upset at such suggestions because they feel their privilege is being attacked. Part of what we need to do is illustrate to people that these types of changes lead to a better result. The Senator mentioned Amsterdam. There are traffic lights for cyclists there because cycling is so popular.

In Amsterdam, a decision was made to make the equivalent of the M50 one-way. That does not sound so bad but it means drivers have to think seriously before getting onto the ring road about where they are going to get off it. If they happen to be one stop ahead of where they want to get off, it means having to do the entire ring to get out. It is quite a simple change to bring forward and, where it is implemented, it has had a huge impact on the number of times people use their car and how often they will choose an active travel alternative. We do not have a full ring road in Dublin but we may need to consider clever ideas like that. It is not about saying to people they cannot have a car, because of course they can. Preferably, it will be a low-emission car rather than not. People can use their car and there will be times they absolutely need to do so. That is perfectly reasonable. However, let us think about the times they really do not need to use the car and about encouraging them to go for the alternative. That is really the message we are trying to put across at this stage.

There is something the Oireachtas already has done and which it might consider pushing a little further. In the Finance Act 2008, under section 18(b), provision was made for the levying of urban parking fees. The subsection states that where an employer provides workers with parking, that will be dealt with, not as benefit-in-kind because that has a specific meaning, but by way of a levy on the employer that is paid to Revenue. That provision is part of finance legislation as adopted by the Dáil and Seanad. It was introduced in section 18(b) of the Finance Act 2008 and it only needs a signature from the Minister for Finance to implement it. When it was introduced, there was quite a bit of resistance. The world was a different place in 2008. Now we have a very diverse workforce commuting into our cities. The levy would only apply in cities because there is public transport available there. We have a very diverse workforce coming into our cities and most people have the ability to work from home for two days a week or more, as the case may be. Some pro ratacomeback on the privilege of having a parking space should be considered.

If people want to use their cars, they can but maybe they should pay for it. That option is there and could be implemented very quickly by the Minister for Finance should he choose, because the Government has already agreed to it as part of the Finance Act.