William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)

It is very interesting because it will be over €208 million. I asked myself what value for money will we get from €208 million. I will have to vote on this eventually in the Dáil. We in Laois got no money at all for the roads or anything like that. I said if I got some portion of that €208 million, it could be very good. I can see the Minister of State looking at me. Look back at the statistics; I did not get anything out of the last tranche.

I thank all of the people who run public transport at the moment. I use public transport. I do not just talk the talk, I walk the walk. I use public transport every day. The only time I cannot use public transport is when the Dáil sits after 10.30 p.m. because I cannot get the train home to Portlaoise. The last one is at 10.10 p.m. We were kept here last week until 1.40 a.m. and then we are talking about the carbon footprint. We should have a look at ourselves from that point of view. With the traffic congestion at the moment, I speak to people in my own town of Portlaoise and in County Laois. They can get public transport to their jobs, mostly people travelling up around Dublin, but other people travel the other direction down to Limerick. My point is those people do not want to be sitting in traffic. Leaving Portlaoise at the moment, if you want to be in Dublin at 8 a.m., you now have to leave at 4.20 a.m. There is no quality of life attached to that sort of commitment that person has to make. That is the gridlock. I often wonder, if Ministers used public transport and their ordinary car once a week - I think every Minister should have to use their ordinary car every Wednesday if they come up from the country - then they would see the gridlock. Then we should see changes very quickly. When you are able to motor in and out with the blue lights on, there is no headache for you. People are sitting there - a young girl told me yesterday morning it took her three and a half hours from 4.50 a.m. to get to work. She cannot get public transport to work. She has to bring her car. She would love to have public transport. There has to be joined-up thinking. We cannot just continue what is going on at the moment. There are more and more cars, lorries and vans on the roads every morning. We can all see that. I did not see the programme last night - I was on public transport on my way home when it was on. I ask the Minister of State to please do something about. It has to be done. Those people commuting are entitled to some form of a standard of living, not to be up and on the road at 5 a.m., coming home at 9 p.m., maybe 8 p.m., having to look after children. It is not fair to them. The Department is looking for €208 million. Show us what it can do to improve the quality of life for those people.

The hop-on, hop-off bus is fantastic. It is only after coming into Portlaoise. It is absolutely brilliant. Some people voiced their opinions about it when it came in. The problem now is it does not go to a quarter of enough of places. That is the way forward. We will have to see something like that. If there is a growth in population like we are after having - our population has nearly doubled in Portlaoise - something has to be put in so people can move from A to B. No longer can you go in cars because it takes an hour to cross the town. From that point of view, if the Department is looking for more money, show us the results at the end of the day. I always acknowledge the work that has been done. We have a good train service out of Portlaoise in the morning and home in the evening provided your job will allow you to get that train. I said already it is important there is joined-up thinking. It could be a lot better for everybody if we put that money to use.