Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

Does the Minister agree that our society's utter dependence on cars, which is demonstrated by the fact that Irish cars travel twice as far as German cars each year, is the fundamental contributory factor behind this country's high level of road fatalities and injuries? It is inevitable that our dependence on car transport, which is much more dangerous than rail transport or bus transport, will lead to a high level of deaths on the road. Therefore, every policy pursued by the Minister for Transport, whose job involves trying to prevent road deaths, should lead to a switch where possible to modes of transport which are safer and which save lives. Is the saving of lives the central plank of the Government's transport policy? If so, does the Minister agree that it behoves us to invest massively in rail and bus transport, rather than encouraging this country's dependence on cars?

See this speech in context