Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presentation. When we are looking at transport and policy shifts within Government, one of the major approaches and key shifts that was taken at the start of this Government was a commitment to spending twice as much on public transport and active travel than on road construction. Looking at it from a climate perspective, that was a key decision that was made by the Minister and his Department.

Yet, this week we saw €800 million in funding from the Government for Northern Ireland, €600 million of which was for the upgrade of a road. I just cannot square those two decisions. There was €600 million towards the upgrade of a road, while at the same time only providing €12.5 million of that €800 million for public transport. Some 1.5% of the funding that Ireland has given as part of that all-island funding is for public transport, and €600 million of it is for road building. I wonder how and why that decision was made. Obviously, the Minister, as Minister for Transport, would have signed off on that at Cabinet. Does that not completely fly in the face of the Minister's commitment to 2:1 funding?