Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

What happens to the ten-year fairytale if the Government is not re-elected, something to which we all look forward? What possible validity can a ten-year plan have when it requires the imprimatur of the people to decide who will be in Government in ten years time? Does the Minister believe there is a need for a greater Dublin transport and planning authority to implement the joined-up thinking to which he referred but which the Government has never addressed?

The Minister said that before he could present a project to Cabinet, he had to ensure it was robust and would work. Why is he, his Department and the NRA presenting a project to widen the M50 which the NRA and everyone else acknowledges will not work? Why does the Minister contend that public transport projects cannot be presented until every detail has been examined while it is full steam ahead in the area of roads which are prioritised in every instance whether or not they are expected to work? It does not seem to matter that traffic modelling demonstrates there will be absolute chaos on the M50. The solution is another orbital road while the regional planning guidelines refer to a further orbital road beyond that one. When will the Government reject road building solutions and begin to fund public transport? It should be this year rather than in ten years time.

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