Mr. Cormac O'Rourke:

Deputy Seán Kenny referred to disruption around College Green. College Green is a key hub and most of the traffic coming from the south side is being diverted through Tara Street to the quays. It is a vital transport link. When the Railway Order was being granted, much of the traffic management issues were dealt with by An Bord Pleanála. I do not know what trade offs were agreed during the planning process. Clearly there were a number of trade offs between Bus Éireann and Luas. There is no simple answer but we have managed the traffic on Harcourt Street. With proper planning and co-ordination between Bus Éireann and the Luas we can overcome the difficulties.

I share the Deputy's concerns about safety. The safety of both passengers and staff is absolutely paramount. All incidents are logged, from a brush with a person who may not even stay around to more serious cases, and they are reviewed. The board of the RPA conducts a review every month of all of the incidents and reviews all cases to see if there are trends to ensure further training is not required. Mistakes will be made, perhaps as a result of tiredness or otherwise. We keep under active review the question of whether staff need further training.

We discussed the anti-social behaviour on the Red Line at the RPA board meeting yesterday. We are working very actively with the Garda Síochána to try to stamp out anti-social behaviour on the Red Line. There are mobile patrols on board to deal with fare evasion and anti-social behaviour. We have a Garda presence on board and continue to provide that over time.

Deputy O'Mahony raised the question of funding projects. The future of public private partnership funding is, I hope, bright. All the indications are that we have overcome all the issues. It is the only form of finance we can find at present. It is very difficult for the Exchequer to fund road projects directly. I agree with the Deputy that some of the roads are not up to scratch. The NRA has developed a very sophisticated condition monitoring system to assess the condition of the roads and a review system for the bends and other unsafe areas. As money permits, we gradually work our way through the list of priority safety areas on the national routes. We will spend €380 million this year on 500 individual projects on the national primary roads. While that is a great deal of money, it is not as much as we would like to spend and is not as much as we would have had in the past. As the Deputy knows, the NRA does not have a role in secondary roads.

Deputy O'Mahony raised the question of legacy snags, but as I was not aware of the interface problem between the local authorities and the NRA, I must speak to Mr. Fred Barry about it to see if we can find a way to resolve these issues. It does not seem satisfactory that people are being passed from Billy to Jack. That is no way to deal with the public.

I share the Chairman's concern about cutting the grass verges. Where public-private companies have been involved in road projects, the grass areas tend to be cut, as this is part of their performance criteria. Where the project is in public control and is one of the areas where we can potentially cut costs, they are not as well maintained as they should be. It can be quite unsightly and this should be looked at, but it is a question of priority. Do we straighten out a dangerous bend or do we cut the grass? I suspect the wisdom of Solomon is required to resolve those issues.

I am aware that signage is a hot issue for the committee. A new standard has been adopted by the NRA. I will certainly look at the issue of signage for tourist attractions, because we should be directing tourists to such attractions. We will endeavour to address the signage issue.