Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

When this Bill was introduced by the Green Party, it was correctly described as a positive Bill. It is timely and welcome. If we are to change attitudes, we need to change the decision making culture. The Bill seeks to do that by a targeted and co-ordinated approach. The national climate change target plan called for in the legislation is needed if we are to see results. We need to change the laissez faire attitude to decision making and that requires a hands-on approach. Planning our towns and cities should be deliberate and must be integrated. For too long, those with financial interests have been setting the agenda. The result is regional imbalance and traffic chaos. We are now facing fines for not meeting our targets on climate change.

Transport planning is needed for every major residential, commercial and industrial development. Such plans should have a public transport element. Planning should be about reducing our need to travel, designing and locating our communal spaces, such as schools and recreational facilities, in such a way as to make it possible to access them by foot. That will not occur unless we provide safe walking and cycling routes. Too often, such facilities are not in the heart of a community but on its periphery, due to what is known as hope value in unzoned land. This adds to the need for a vehicle to access essential services. Initiatives such as safe routes to school have a demonstrated value in traffic reduction and these initiatives should be a given. Congestion around schools and the need to introduce exercise into the daily routine for our children are obvious reasons for accelerating the delivery of such schemes.

In many communities, one cannot go to a bottle bank without a car, which is quite ironic. How environmentally friendly is such an approach? There is not one comprehensive recycling facility in my constituency. Local authorities are shying away from providing comprehensive recycling facilities owing to costs. While the capital costs are funded by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the running costs must be borne by the council. A change is needed.

We need to arrive at a situation where we have genuine land use and transport planning to deal with traffic congestion. In the week when Operation Freeflow began, it seemed free flow was facilitated by holding back traffic on the county side of the M50. There is no doubt that traffic jams this week are longer at that side.

For those of us living close to the N4, the concern is great in 2005 but we are worried it will get worse in 2006. The word "Adamstown" conjures up the background sounds in the film "Jaws" when the shark is about to bite its prey. The communities in that area expect to be bitten by this development. The expectation is that this massive new town will add significantly to the problems. It is supposed to be planned in such a way that services will be delivered in conjunction with new dwellings. Quality bus corridors are included in the plans, but will there be buses to run on them? The train service to be provided terminates at Heuston station, but the interconnector linking Heuston station to the docklands will not be available for ten years while a three-mile tunnel is being constructed. The Kildare route project will double the lines and will be completed by 2010. This will increase the number of commuters who have perfected the 100 yard dash between the train station and the bus and Luas stops. While all these projects are welcome, they are taking far too long and they need to be integrated.

Creating a crisis seems to be a uniquely Irish way of doing things. We create the crisis and come to a dramatic solution such as that used to clear smog from Dublin. It was only when the problem presented itself at the hospital gates that the issue was tackled. The decision was a good one, but the problem should have been anticipated. Short-term thinking may have been necessary in times of economic bankruptcy. We can now afford to take the long view. We have the resources to plan properly if the political will exists. Some Fianna Fáil backbenchers referred to a doomsday scenario where industry would close down. They should take a look at the energy efficiency of Intel and HP. We can do better but to do so, we must do things differently. That means a change in culture.

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