Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. Following on from what we have heard, I think it is reasonable to say that if there is a directly elected mayor for Dublin, the most basic interpretation of this would be the Limerick model that has been discussed, whereby the NTA would effectively stay as is in terms of what it is doing, but it would have a reporting-in function to a directly elected mayor in Dublin. The most extreme situation would be one in which everything the NTA does as regards public transport in the Dublin area would be completely devolved.

If we do not end up with the minimum or the maximum, what are the other options and how might they work if some of the NTA's competencies were devolved and some were retained? How could that be split? Does the NTA have a view on that?

We have seen some great work done on active travel by the local authorities but we have also seen a lack of a joined-up approach. In my constituency Fingal County Council and Dublin City Council meet so I see these on-road active travel, protected cycle lanes and then the border with Dublin City Council comes in and the cycle lanes disappear all of a sudden, even though there is still the same space for them. That shows the lack of co-ordination between local authorities, although some of those cases have been worked on. I know that eventually all of these things will join up but there has been a lack of an immediate overall strategy.

Did the Dublin transport office have a responsibility for the greater Dublin area or was it just for what is within the four Dublin local authority areas? I ask the witnesses to answer that and to address the question I put on a scenario where if we do not end up with the minimum or the maximum then what areas could we be looking at. Does the NTA have a view on which areas it make sense to devolve and which ones it would not make sense to devolve? For example, in her opening statement Ms Graham referenced the expertise in ticketing technologies. It could make infinite sense to keep that expertise at a national level but that the office of a directly elected mayor could avail of that expertise. Does the NTA have views on that? That is what we are trying to explore and get a handle on.