Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The danger is that all of us, politicians and the witnesses, have not faced reality. It is all very well saying we could have done this, that and the other four or five years ago but the reality is that the IMF walked into the Department of Finance and took us over. This country was broke and we keep forgetting that. The rebuilding of the economy and other priorities were stopped in their tracks. Nobody would disagree with the need for more capital expenditure but we did not have any money. We need to look at the submissions in the context of reality and to get some perspective. In many respects, however, it is a miracle the country is where it is today, after the terrible setback we had. We must not make the same mistakes again and we have to think outside the norm.

What is the witnesses' opinion on how we might get people living within a normal distance from the city as compared to other capitals? If one lives in London, 20 or 30 miles is nothing yet we are talking about spending vast sums of money to build a vast public transport system from one side of St. Stephen's Green to the other side of the Liffey, when we need to build proper access in the form of roads or rail to areas 30 or 40 miles outside Dublin. There is always going to be a need for access within the city but where people live is the problem. I live in the direction of Killiney and if I was to come in at 8 a.m. in a car or a bus it would take anything between 40 minutes and an hour.

On the other hand, if I have access to a proper public transport, and I am fortunate to have that with the DART, I can get into the city from Drogheda and even Dundalk in that time. When I go to Pearse Station at 5 p.m., the queues of people on the opposite platform travelling north to Dundalk, Drogheda or west to Maynooth are incredible. More people are living outside the city, which is not a bad thing. The rat race which results in people having to take on huge mortgages to buy a three-bedroom terraced house in the area represented by me and Deputy Boyd Barrett is a millstone around people's necks that they will never get rid of. Buying a semi-detached or terraced house out our way for €500,000 is a bargain. We should discuss how we can encourage people in all walks of life to start thinking about where they live and how the statistics relating to where they live are irrelevant in the context of where they work. That is the main problem. We are mixing up where people live and where they work. It is not a question of extending the DART line two or three miles outside the city at an enormous cost when bus lanes and a rail link could be provided to transport people from 20 or 30 miles away. It would take the same time as those commuting from eight miles away.