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

I thank the Deputy for his friendship as well. We have always got on well. We have disagreed sometimes on various issues, but I have always found him to be most respectful and collegial.

On investment in transport, public transport and roads, maybe I will bring them together. I have a perspective looking forward, rather than back to 2023, that the country has never had a more significant budget surplus or financial resources. It is quite phenomenal we find ourselves with the likes of the Apple money and being able to invest in the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. However, even with that very significant positive situation we have compared with any of our neighbouring countries, the challenge facing the next government and the one after that is really hard choices in the transport area, because we have so many projects in development. All are valid and a very strong case can be made for them, but we will not have the funding even if we were to get all the Apple money. Even if that largesse continued, we would still have a deficit in what could be spent. It is also an issue about engineering and contracting resources. I keep coming back to the point that three or four years ago when we were starting this version of the national development plan, we were very glad to get an allocation of €35 million in this period for the NDP, but we recognised we had €100 billion in projects in development and that was before the inflation that occurred in the past two to three years and before other new projects came onstream.

One of the biggest concerns I have is I see that investment coming in Dublin with a real certainty because Dublin is ahead. Dublin has been 20 years thinking about some of these projects, like the metro and so on. That very significant funding is going to come to Dublin because a lot of the projects have come through planning. Out of the 12 BusConnects projects in Dublin, nine are through planning and I expect the metro to be through planning within months, please God. DART+ west is through planning and the north, south and south west DART+ projects are also in planning. In the neighbouring area around Dublin, we need a rail line to Navan and the extension of the DART to Wicklow. All these have rock-solid cases and will have to be developed because Dublin needs that infrastructure. However, the problem we have is if we just develop in Dublin and do not develop in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick as well as in towns like Sligo and in the north west in particular, we will not deliver the balanced regional development we all want. That is not good for Dublin as well as everywhere else. It would just put property prices up further. On that, we are starting to play catch-up in this Government. We have delivered a lot in the form of very extensive plans for the development of metropolitan rail in Cork while in Waterford we are seeing projects already starting to be delivered, including new rail stations and there are upgrades of the railway stations in Galway and Limerick. However, that is only really scratching the surface. We need to go with BusConnects projects in each of those cities and also continue outside them.

I absolutely accept what the Deputy said at the start. Connecting Ireland has been a phenomenal success and we need to continue for the next five years to do what we have done for the past two, where every week we roll out a new or enhanced rural bus service. It is quite expensive, but it is hugely beneficial for rural development and regional balance. I could go on. The western rail corridor needs to be up there as a first priority. A rail link to Shannon is another priority, as is reopening the rail line from Wexford to Waterford. All three of those could then be part of regional metropolitan rail networks. I am only scraping the surface. Roads are needed too. We need the Carrick-on-Shannon bypass and the Virginia bypass. I agree on the N17 and the likes of prioritising the Charlestown bypass. Again, I could continue to Ballina, Foxford and all those towns where we have plans. Every time I went west in particular, I met representatives of local councils who were saying if they could only get the traffic out of Ballintubber, Ballinrobe and so on, it would transform those towns.

We should be investing in those projects quickly because we have a chance with remote working to get town life back.

The difficulty with having the election is everybody will be saying there is money for everything, that we will be able to build everything and do it quickly. That is not true. We probably need the next NDP to be part of what is a 20- or 30-year project in respect of building out this scale of new transport infrastructure. I would argue public transport needs to get priority; not only because of climate emissions though those are real, but because of the type of development it brings. It brings transport-led developments. You get new housing beside where the public transport is put in, which works very well. More than anything else, the Irish people want it. They love public transport. When a decent public transport service is provided, everyone flocks to it. The problem we have had in the past is we have not put the money into public transport. In truth, we have allowed it to wither and that needs to be reversed in the next five, ten and 20 years. I am convinced that doing that will transform the country for the better.