Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

The public is making its own arrangements on public transport by mixing modes of transport. People are leaving their cars close to train stations so that public transport can be used for, at least, one leg of their journey. Spending on car parks around train stations is not seen as investment but rather a drain on public funds and it has been suggested that commuters be charged to park at train stations instead of it being seen as a benefit. Feeder bus services, that would avoid the necessity to use such car parks, are seen merely as something that will cost money, yet we are willing to invest in other countries by buying ourselves out of our traffic jams through carbon credits. That is essentially what we are doing.

I am not opposed to cars. The problem is one of car use as opposed to car ownership. The Netherlands is a good example of a country which, despite high levels of car ownership, has balanced car use. I was a member of one of the panels of the Dublin Transportation Office when it examined the connection between transport and land use. This involved carrying out scenario testing to determine the best case scenario for the city. Although a range of good scenarios were presented to the panel, the practical outcome in Dublin, the dispersed pattern of development which is driving up demand for private cars as a means of transportation, is the worst case scenario. In buying carbon credits we are paying the price for some of the disgraceful decisions made on development.

While I welcome recent initiatives on home heating systems, much more could be done. I have been contacted by several constituents considering installing solar panels who were uncertain as to whether they require planning permission. We must consider the hoops that end users are forced to go through to avail of the incentives in place. Such schemes must be more widely available and easier to use. We must take a carrot rather than a stick approach to encouraging use of beneficial technologies.

If politicians were to state in their election manifestos that our failure to provide solutions to easily resolved problems will mean that by 2012 personal taxation levels will have to increase or public services will have to be cut back to meet the considerable costs involved in emissions trading, people would revolt. This is, however, the predictable outcome of our behaviour. We are starting on the back foot by taking the easy way out. Ireland can do much better.

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