Michael Mulcahy (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

With the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's permission, I will share my time with Deputy Callanan.

I also congratulate the Minister and the Government on Transport 21. I was privileged to attend its launch this time last year in Dublin Castle. It is an ambitious plan and I believe it will be implemented.

I call on members of the Opposition to stop mealy-mouthing this plan. I am not saying the previous speaker did, but, in general, there has been a mealy-mouth response to it. They should get behind it because the public, by and large, want this ambitious plan implemented in the national interest.

There are a few key points I wish to make about the plan. There is no point going over all the detail of it, although I congratulate my colleague, Deputy O'Connor, on mentioning Tallaght at least 22 or 24 times. I will not mention Ballyfermot, Crumlin or Drimnagh 24 times. I just reiterate the good news that there is a new Luas line planned for Lucan which will go through Ballyfermot. The Minister is looking at a feasibility study for a Luas line to Terenure. There is good news for my constituency, but I do not really want to speak about that today.

I wish to address a recent controversy on transport. The ESRI stated a few days ago that we have all this money and all these plans, but if we try to do it all too quickly, we might raise inflation which could be problematic. I wish to give my rebuttal clearly here to the ESRI — the public is impatient for the implementation of this plan. The public does not want to wait until the next recession before being able to drive to the west quickly. The public does not want to wait another ten years for proper commuter facilities to the suburbs. The public does not want to wait until the next recession for a metro line to the north of this city and for the western corridor to be completed.

The public has been given a schedule with this plan. I have the schedule, covering from 2006 to 2015, that was given out last year and I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, to convey in the strongest possible terms the support of the House to the Minister for Transport to get on with this job and not be deflected by any mealy-mouthing from the Opposition or, indeed, from any negative criticism by the ESRI. This schedule is a good and ambitious one and it should be stuck to.

I agree with one point, which is made sometimes by members of the Opposition and sometimes by people on this side of the House. We should not go overboard on road tolling. There is a place for road tolling, but it should not be used everywhere. If one examines the finances of the State, there are large surpluses running and there is a large sum of money in the pension reserve fund. There is a strong argument to be made for using some of those capital resources to finish those road projects rather than giving those projects out to toll companies. I have no ideological hang-up about toll companies and, as I stated, they have their place, but let us not litter every highway with a tolling scheme. Let us use some of our capital resources to finish this project.

More generally, the disability issue should be given top priority in the Transport 21 plan. It is absolutely unacceptable that there are still buses which are inaccessible to the disabled in this city and in the suburbs. We should give a strict timetable whereby every bus in the State is fully accessible to the disabled. I led a campaign to make one of the Ballyfermot bus routes accessible to the disabled. In that area, there was a lady who had not been out of her house in ten years because she could not get on to a bus and that is unacceptable. I ask the Minister of State to convey to the Minister the message to put this matter at the top of the agenda. It will not happen overnight. Nothing happens overnight. One must be realistic, but I would like to think that in two or three years there would be a public announcement by the Minister that every bus, rail, DART, Luas and metro facility in the State is fully accessible to the disabled. In that regard, let us be ambitious, set ourselves a timeframe and, hopefully, live up to it.

This is only possible because of the economic progress. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, stated at the launch of Transport 21 that one of the assumptions of the plan is that the economy will grow over the medium term at close to its potential rate and that this implies an average real growth rate of approximately 4.5%. It is important that we keep the economy on track because if the economy is not doing well, it will not be possible to implement this transport plan. For that reason, I pay tribute to the Government in general for having an economy where this plan is feasible. I commend the Minister and I commend the plan and wish it well for the future.

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