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

I will answer by going back to what the Cathaoirleach said that it would be very good to the BusConnects plan, the network and corridors – it is a big complex project – concluded by the end of this decade. I agree with him. For where we are now, that would be a great outcome and we should make sure it happens but that is not satisfactory because it started in 2016 or 2017, so that is 14 years to build a bus corridor network. The problem is it was a controversial project because the designs were wrong at the start. They were very much corridors over communities and not getting that sense of villages back. In fairness to the NTA, it listened and that public consultation process through three phases won over most of the public and, in my experience, and won over councillors and TDs, but by the time it is built, it is ten years later. It is 14 years to build out from end to end. That is too long. Not only it is too long in that you do not get the benefit, it is also more expensive. The benefit of public consultation is that you get the public with you and then there is a ten-year gap. That does not work. The reasons are many but our public spending code needs to be updated. That does not help in terms of the number. You need checks and you need to make sure it is good value for money and so on. That process is quite protracted. There are lots of gates involved. It is difficult process to go through. Our planning and legal systems create great uncertainty.

On the metro, being honest, I have to say that to a certain extent we do not know. First, it is not through planning yet. Second, when it gets through planning, it will then have to go through a judicial review process. That could take any length of time. I could pick examples but I do not want to because we have to be sensitive about judicial independence-----