Mr. Peter Strachan:

I will try to deal with those in order. It was not an accident that I mentioned MetroLink as one of the top priorities because I am aware, going back to the Vice Chairperson's question about how much I know of what is going on here, of the history of that. As we sit here in 2023, the Vice Chairperson is right there are not many capital cities around the world which are not served by a dedicated rail line, a light rail line or some form of rapid transit. We have quite a lot of catching up to do and that is why it is on the list of priorities.

We should not underestimate the fiscal and delivery challenge of MetroLink. When I have been sitting in our programmes and investment committee, I have been bringing my experience of Crossrail, now the Elizabeth line in London, into the discussion about making sure we deliver this as efficiently and effectively as we can within a financial envelope and get the best expertise in the marketplace we can. We need to make this project attractive to the international construction marketplace. People will look at this and think it is a big project but let us make sure that creates the competition, through our partners in procurement, to get the right partners to deliver this. Members will find me really passionate about getting MetroLink in as quickly as we can but let us not underestimate the challenges of doing that, because they are big.

The challenge with any active travel or bus prioritisation and making sure we get the modal shift right by use of road space involves getting the best out of constrained road space. BusConnects, as a programme, is quite exciting in that respect.

On the face of it, it looks like a series of relatively modest interventions across the city. When they are joined up in the daisy chain, however, it can be seen where the use of the resource of the bus, and the drivers, can be maximised to get greater frequency and, importantly, greater reliability. Last week, colleagues from Dublin Bus were before the committee. Every time we talk to our delivery partners in the area of bus transport, it is about the reliability of the service and making sure that the resource use is as effective as possible. BusConnects will give that.

Are there compromises to be made on road space? There are, but when you look elsewhere at cities that have done that, it has a twofold effect. The way car journeys are potentially made less attractive through constraints and time can, in effect, be a driver to modal shift. People will leave the car at home because they can see the bus going past them through the bus gates, the bus jumps and on dedicated bus lines. We have also got to use that road space effectively for even more sustainable transport and active travel, such as cycling in particular, if we can. Compromises are to be made but I am quite excited about the BusConnects project in Dublin and other cities.

On how much further we can go with Local Link, the challenge, as the Deputy well knows coming from a rural area, is there is not necessarily the critical mass of numbers. When we sit back from it, and go through the business cases and the benefit-cost ratios, it is sometimes difficult to make the case for things such as Local Link, either from a capital infrastructure or resource allocation point of view, in comparison with things in some of our bigger cities. It is a particular role of the board in guiding the strategy to have the authority to say that on the bald face of it the business case might not be fully stacking up, but we know we have got a social obligation to make sure the wider socioeconomic benefits of inclusion, and access to jobs, education and social and health services, are provided by the transport infrastructure in that locality. We need to try to balance that up. If we had a blank cheque book we could do an awful lot more, but we clearly do not. I am not naive enough to think that we do.

I am sorry. I have forgotten the last point the Deputy made.