Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Whatever about Kilkenny and the other cities we need to develop, Dublin will not have any big public transport projects for ten years. There is no budget for the interim solution for providing for bus, cycle and walkways. There are no plans for Galway, Cork or Limerick. There are no plans for Kilkenny other than to build more roads in the city centre. We are in a bit of a crisis on the planning front and while we need higher density centres, there is no point in having the higher density unless there is public transport because it is the only way to service the higher density population centres. When economists assess a scheme, they will look at the cost-benefit analysis of a road and they love it because it will show all the figures. Yet, they cannot do an economic analysis that shows the benefit of planning for better, sustainable transport options; the social and societal benefits we get from having land use and transport planning done together. I wish to flag this slight crisis in our cities because they are starting to gridlock as the economy grows at 5% per annum. My city is going to gridlock and it needs radical change in investment in public transport and emergency funding. There is nothing in the current budget. Transport Infrastructure Ireland is brilliant at spending and the reason the construction industry loves public private partnerships is because the industry knows how to do them and roll them out. We have done nothing but motorways in the last 20 or 30 years, other than a couple of Luas lines. The construction industry loves it, those companies know how to do it, they get money for it and it will all be done. If that scale and urgency of investment went into public transport in all our cities, it would benefit the regions. Economic development is happening in our cities whether or not we like it and if we do not start doing this in our cities, we will lose jobs and our economic success.