Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Government is incapable of making the right decisions about transport, or of making such decisions in a timely fashion. Traffic levels on the M50 reached that motorway's design capacity some years ago. It was obvious for the previous two or three years that it was about to happen. The decision to widen the M50 and to improve the junctions leading to it should have been taken in the late 1990s, rather than last year. We will have to endure roadworks for the next four years on an orbital city motorway that jams up every morning and afternoon because it is carrying traffic at almost twice its design capacity. The same thing can be said about the toll barriers on the West Link bridge. It famously took the Taoiseach and his Ministers three years to make a decision on the new terminal at Dublin Airport. However, the Government is able to make decisions on tax breaks for the property developers who fund Fianna Fáil in a matter of days.

New towns have been developing since the 1960s in the greater Dublin area, in places like Blanchardstown, Lucan, Clondalkin, Tallaght and Swords. It is pretty obvious that high capacity rapid rail and bus links to the centre of Dublin are needed in such towns, many of which have populations in excess of that of Limerick city. Good local transport links between the outlying areas and centres of such towns are also needed. No such facilities are available at present. People have to walk up to two miles to town centres, or are forced to buy two cars for each household. The level of traffic congestion in the areas I have mentioned is notorious. It takes at least an hour and a half to travel into the centre of Dublin from the outlying areas of these new towns by car or by bus in the mornings and evenings. Working in the city centre can involve a three-hour commute for people who want to see their children, particularly their young children, before they are fast asleep in bed.

The cost to business of the transport difficulties I have mentioned is substantial. The lifestyle of many young workers is being affected by these problems. People who have children are unable to spend as much quality time as they would like with their families. The Minister for Education and Science famously said last Easter that parents should spend more quality time with their children. She gave us all a lecture about the matter, as if parents were unaware of it. I hope she will have a word in the ear of the Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher. As a member of the Government, the best thing the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, could do to improve the ability of parents to spend quality time with their children would be to help to reduce the exceptional amount of time that parents have to spend commuting. The citizens of no other city in Europe have to endure such time consuming journeys for such relatively short distances. It is totally unprecedented in this country for an eight-mile journey to take three hours.

The Government needs to recognise the scale of the transport crisis throughout Dublin. Suburban towns are expanding rapidly without additional transport infrastructure being put in place. Dublin is expanding not only into counties Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, but also into counties Carlow and Kilkenny. It takes those who live in a small place like Paulstown, which is ten miles from Kilkenny city, a great deal of time to travel into that city. Commuters from west Dublin are at their wits' end because any minor crash or obstruction anywhere along the M50 is guaranteed to lead to a morning of hell for them, regardless of whether they take public transport or drive to work in their cars. Local bus services, such as the 39 route, are supposed to be served by bus lanes or quality bus corridors, just like the 46 route, which passes RTE. The bus corridor in that part of west Dublin is a fantasy, in practice, because buses use dedicated bus lanes for just 22% of their journeys. The crisis in journey times cannot be allowed to continue.

A commuter recently sent me a letter about commuting from Clonsilla. The letter states that the train arrives seriously overcrowded with approximately three carriages — half a train. He is then faced with pushing, shoving and, on occasion, people fainting beside him. He states that he could not face this journey daily because of the claustrophobic conditions. Unfortunately, he would rather face a one hour 30 minute plus journey on the bus than travel on a train for 25 minutes. He states that in the evening he has to rely on a lift from the train station which allows him to get home at a reasonable time to ensure some kind of life. He further states that the option of affording a house on a train line is not possible due to the extortionate price of houses beside decent transport services.

Deputy Shortall listed the imaginative and simple steps the Labour Party would take. Transport is key to our competitiveness and to the quality of life of our young, well-educated people whom we hope will stay in this country. We do not want them to emigrate to London where they will be able to afford a house and get a decent commuter service that allows them have some quality of family life. Transport is essential for business.

I noted with concern the famous ambiguity of the Taoiseach this week as he hinted that the lorries may not be taken off the streets of Dublin when the port tunnel is open. The Taoiseach is famous for being like Janus — facing in every direction. Having spent all that money, if there is not a total quality bus corridor all along the north and south side of the quays, the Taoiseach, who represents the constituency that covers most of central Dublin, ought to resign before the people show him the door.

See this speech in context