Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 February 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport

9:00 am

Mr. Graham Doyle:

-----the sustainable transport document.

That particular document was prepared in 2009 against an expectation of funding over the lifetime of it of the order of over €4 billion, perhaps as much as €4.5 billion, which obviously did not happen in the context of the fiscal crisis. The key point in response to the Deputy's question is we do not have a view that sustainable transport is something that should exist separately from what we do in transport. It has to be mainstreamed into what we do in transport. That has to guide principles. For example, as Luas cross-city works are being done, significant consideration has to be given on that project to how cyclists can co-exist with the trams. We should not be considering smart ticketing or any of the other issues that are critically important in terms of getting people out of their cars on to public transport separately. It is something we should be absolutely mainstreaming.