Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I decided to emulate Deputy O'Connor and use some local issues to highlight how the Government had failed the people I was elected to represent. I will start with transport. Every morning in Terenure one can sit in one's car, have a cup of tea, read a couple of newspapers and make a few telephone calls because there is no rush. One will sit for at least an hour in the traffic jam.

Transport 21, a wonderful idea, has been promised but Terenure, Walkinstown, Kimmage and Crumlin have been left out of the loop. One of my colleagues, Deputy Mulcahy, is of the opinion that he will bring the Luas to Terenure. We look forward to this. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. My colleague, Deputy Shortall, calculates that one would be better off travelling from Ballyfermot to the city centre by horse and cart as it would take only 33 minutes, whereas if one travels by bus, it will take 52 minutes. That demonstrates a gap in the quality of our transport system.

On crime, I am glad the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is present. It was said the number of gardaí was at an all-time high. That might be true for some parts of the country but not for Dublin South-Central. In fact, the number of community gardaí in one area of Crumlin has been reduced from five to four. There are reports that Sundrive Garda station will close and Ballyfermot Garda station——

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