Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The biggest political obstacle in meeting our targets is getting political support for what we will do, which is reallocate road space so that the buses work quicker, traffic is less gridlocked and the system works for everyone. That, and not increasing prices of diesel and petrol, was the stated Government policy and my clear direction as Minister as to where we were going to go. It is hard to model that. How can we predict? It has to come from the bottom up. We require local authorities to support those sorts of changes. If we are introducing a bus gate or putting in a bus lane, particularly if we are trying to do it quickly, which we need to do, that is very unpopular. The Deputy knows that. We all know that. It is not easy to get it through, but I believe we can and will. It is going to be good for the traffic system and better for public transport as well. I do not know where the EPA got that understanding that we were all relying on an increase in petrol and diesel prices. That is not true. It was clearly signalled and directed that it was not the direction we were going to take and that it would be far better to do road space reallocation to improve the bus system and make it safer to walk and cycle. That will reduce emissions.