Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I agree fully that we should not do it piecemeal. As will happen now, we should not be retrofitting the pedestrian and cycling facilities 18 months after we finish the Luas tracks. The Luas project is long enough in the making to have allowed us to do the two at the same time. The same problem exists with the Liffey cycle route which we should be introducing at the same time the Luas starts to cross the river near O'Connell Bridge. The reason we are not doing it is a lack of vision and political will. While the Dublin Chamber of Commerce has come around to the right way of thinking in terms of the nature of the city's development, that has to mean standing up for the difficult decisions we need to take and the investment we need to make. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, has not the slightest interest in this approach. I cannot understand why and I cannot understand how he fails to see the logic of developing the city in the way the chamber sees it. In the absence of that political direction at ministerial level and, I have to say, local authority level, Dublin Chamber of Commerce must step up and say "Let us build the College Green plaza and a cycle route along the Liffey quays". It is not happening because we lack joined-up thinking and political support.