Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I commend my colleague, Deputy Shortall, on proposing this motion, which outlines a most imaginative plan for tackling the short-term difficulties which are causing gridlock in Dublin.

When the Taoiseach opened the National Aquatic Centre in west Dublin a couple of years ago, he famously declared to gasps from the locals who were present in the audience that it was great that Blanchardstown was just 20 minutes away from the GPO. He can dream on. It might take one just 20 minutes to make such journey if one has a State car and a Garda driver who is legally allowed to use the bus lanes. The average bus journey time from Dublin 15 to the city centre for the ordinary commuter is 111 minutes. When the M50 clogs up, as happened last week, it can take three hours to make an eight-mile journey. It took longer to get from Blanchardstown or Lucan to the city centre last week than it would have taken to travel by train from Dublin to Belfast. That is what we are talking about. I expect that new novels, films and other works of art or rage will start to emerge some day soon when people outline the details of their experience of commuting from places like Blanchardstown in the west of Dublin.

The Government, which has encouraged the construction of tens of thousands of homes in west Dublin and similar areas in Dublin and other cities, is indifferent to the plight of people who use public transport. A significant number of people, particularly young people, who are moving into new homes in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Waterford would love to be able to use public transport — buses or trains — but they cannot do so. Such services are either not available or, in the case of bus services in particular, are not available reliably. If extra buses were made available immediately, I do not doubt that up to 20% of car users who currently make direct journeys in and out of cities like Dublin would transfer to public transport services like buses and trains.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a European capital city that has traffic congestion that is as bad and public transport that is as poor as Dublin and other Irish cities. Deputy Shortall cited some statistics in that regard. We know how fast the economy is growing, although it seems to come as a surprise to the Government. We know where houses, factories and offices are being built. The provision of appropriate transport infrastructure at an early stage is standard government practice in the rest of Europe, but not in Ireland.

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