Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)
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I will try to stick to the Chairman's advice. I welcome the Minister to the committee and wish him every success as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. He spoke about the investment in public transport. Will he provide additional capital to Dublin Bus to replace some of its older buses? As the average age of the fleet increases, maintenance costs mount up and safety problems arise.

While I agree with the Minister that the new Luas construction project is very welcome, I am aware that it is leading to severe disruption. I ask that priority be given to this problem. It is difficult to travel down Dawson Street at the moment. There is serious disruption on College Green and Nassau Street. I expect that the disruption on Marlborough Street, which is to the north of the Liffey, will extend to Eden Quay as well. An effort should be made to minimise the impact of these works. Perhaps more work should be done on weekends, rather than between Monday and Friday. The current activity means it takes longer to cross the city by bus or by car. A greater effort should be made to minimise such disruption.

I take the Minister's point that the number of fatal accidents has decreased even though traffic levels on the roads have increased noticeably in the last year or so. As more people go back to work, more people are using public transport and their cars to travel around. I welcome the fact that we have had one fewer road fatality so far this year. Nevertheless, as the Minister said, we cannot get complacent.

There is a particular safety issue with the Luas network. A number of accidents in the last year, caused by the mix of pedestrians, Luas lines and vehicular traffic, have resulted in injuries and fatalities. There was a fatal accident involving a constituent of mine on Abbey Street earlier this year.

A greater effort must be put into ensuring there is safety where the Luas uses the same space as pedestrians and other traffic. The issue also needs to be given a greater priority.