Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We talked about the priorities and ambitions. Mr. Strachan might comment on where he sees the biggest challenges. Although he has probably addressed them somewhat, the issue of bus drivers and mechanics is becoming quite a big problem.

Please touch on airport services, because the larger a modal shift where we can get away from people driving their cars to the airport, the better. We can argue about whether they should be going to the airport at all and I am sure Deputy Matthews would have concerns about people flying, full stop. If people are going to fly, the least carbon friendly way of getting to the airport is by car. I think that many more people would love to be able to travel to the airport by bus services, if they were available. In many places, including in parts of Dublin city, they are not available, particularly priority services that can use bus lanes and the Dublin Port Tunnel.

The NTA is not just the public service obligation, PSO, provider. It actually licenses all the transport services, Aircoach, CityLink, Expressway and so on.

We touched on the issue of congestion with the operators. I had not heard of the avoid-shift-improve strategy and I quite like that. As somebody who cycled here this morning, it would be very remiss of me not to mention cycling. What does Mr. Strachan see as the NTA's role for cycling? Almost every bike used means a car is taken off the road, although it may mean some passengers being shifted off the Luas. As motorists, we can be frustrated by cyclists flying past us when we are sitting in traffic but more bikes mean fewer cars. It is important that we do not just become obsessed with very expensive projects, which are very necessary. We also need to see that there is a huge win available if we can take school children out of cars, not just for their health or for climate emissions, but also because they can get to and from school with a level of independence. This would reduce by hundreds the number of cars going to schools twice a day, congesting the roads. We all know how much lighter traffic is when schools are on holidays.

I ask Mr. Strachan to touch on the emphasis on modal shift. The N11 quality bus corridor, QBC, was probably one of the cheapest projects. I was a local authority member for a very long stretch of that. I remember the huge furore at the time about the idea of taking a car lane out of parts of south Dublin referred to in newspapers as the "leafy suburbs". Once people saw how efficient the bus was those very people who were complaining actually got on the bus. They realised that it was much faster than sitting in a car. Too many of our journeys are actually not that much quicker by bus than by car. That is where the tipping point is, in convincing people to not use their car. If it is 20 minutes in a car and 18 minutes on a bus, most people will probably take the car, particularly if they have free parking at their destination. If it is an hour in the car and only 20 minutes on the bus or the Luas then people will decide to take the public transport because it makes sense. That is the biggest job of the NTA, the modal shift to encourage people in this direction. Of course there are people who will not have the opportunity, but where there are good services, people use them. In the case of the Luas there was nothing on that corridor for 40 or 50 years since it was closed in 1959. I remember being at the launch of the Luas. It sucked passengers in from everywhere. People who would never have dreamt of getting public transport were willing to walk 12 or 15 minutes to get to the station. They did not know or care about the timetable because they knew there would be another tram along in a few minutes.

Cycling is not just good for people's health, it also helps in reducing emissions and congestion and improving journey times for people on public transport. Many people who make the shift find it beneficial. I would say I cycle in here about 85% of the time. When I return to the car it can be very frustrating. Movement is very slow in the city centre and even more so in the suburbs at certain times of day. I ask Mr. Strachan to touch on those points.