Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister, who is always very good at that. I also wish to raise something that no one else has mentioned but which relates to vehicles, car tax and so on, namely an EU directive on end-of-life vehicles. It stated that, when vehicles reach the end of their lives, they be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. One would get rid of the oil and the exhaust, which would not simply be piled in a heap, and all that costs money. The players involved in this such as the motoring organisations, the Minister and the car dismantlers all came together before the last election with another Minister — Deputy Noel Dempsey at that time. An agreement was reached regarding what would happen about the end-of-life vehicles directive and how it would be implemented in Ireland. Everything was sorted out, signed and sealed or so we thought.

However, after the election a new Minister was appointed. That new Minister, for some reason or another, decided that he would reopen the whole business. Strangely, when he did so, he went to talk to only one of the partner organisations in the outfit, namely, the SIMI. He did not bother talking to the other people, the dismantlers, at all. They were quite happy with the arrangement, but suddenly the SIMI got cold feet on it, and it seemed to enjoy power and influence, having the ear of the Minister to get the previous agreement dismantled.

Nothing has happened. It is all up in the sky, and the directive, which should have been implemented in this country two years ago, has still not been implemented. The EU is now taking us to court over it because the Minister decided to unravel what appeared to be a perfectly good agreement. The partners who had signed up to it were happy with it, but the Minister decided to revisit it. Why did he do that? Who brought the influence to bear on him? Why did he unravel that agreement, and will he come into this House and explain to us what exactly happened, who he met, what discussions he had and by what right he failed to implement the directive when it seemed a good thing to do?

Given the difficulties faced by motorists in this city, I sometimes marvel that people around Dublin have cars at all. To drive in and out of this city with traffic at its current levels is absolutely awful. The other morning I was coming to Leinster House, and it took me 40 minutes to come from the Liberties to here. The traffic was appallingly bad as it is regularly. Then, if one manages to negotiate the new Luas lines, the potholes and the digging of the roads, to avoid the clampers, who represent another tax on the motorist in Dublin, and get to one's destination, the sad thing is that one must face the journey out again later. The congestion is terrible, and we are failing to do anything about it, not managing traffic properly in this city and, unfortunately, in many provincial towns. I can mention my own town of Mullingar, where the congestion is becoming quite unacceptable. We are failing to keep pace with the need for additional parking spaces and to provide access to and exit from towns in a free-flowing fashion, enabling motorists to do their business and move on. We are wasting time and energy and polluting the atmosphere by having long tailbacks for drivers and car owners while they attempt to gain access to the various towns and services they require.

I also neglected to mention rural people and the need for vehicles. All those over 66 years are entitled to a free travel pass. In many rural areas, that is absolutely useless. I know that it is not the responsibility of the Minister's Department, but it relates to the transport sector and he could perhaps use his influence with the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Coughlan. It might be logical to allow rural people to convert their free travel pass to vouchers that they could use in taxis. If one is living in the back of beyond and there is no bus service in the area, what good is a free travel pass? However, if one had a voucher system worth perhaps €100 per annum, one could use it with one's local taxi service to gain access to the town for one's pension or provisions or for whatever purpose. This would be fair recompense to those people who live in rural areas and do not have the opportunity to use their free travel passes.

If one is in the city, one has great access to public transport and can use that free travel pass regularly and get fantastic value from it. One can get many miles under one's belt by using it. Unfortunately, one's rural cousins do not have the same bonus. It is an idea that the Minister might want to bear in mind. A few years ago, we made provision for people living on islands to use the free travel pass to fly in and out as a concession. There was some help towards those journeys. Why not now extend this in order that the free travel passes can be used by those living in rural areas? It is quite a simple system. People would get vouchers cashable through the Department in the same way as the butter voucher system some years ago. People would get vouchers and could use them with taxi services. That would help defray the cost they incur regularly by paying their way to various places.

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