Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I wish to share my time with Deputy McEntee, with the agreement of the House.

I am very happy to support this motion. In fact, it deals with issues about which I have been appealing, virtually like a broken record, since the early 1990s.

When I spoke in the House nearly ten years ago of impending gridlock, I was laughed at, dismissed and considered guilty of hysterical exaggeration. However, no one is laughing now or accusing me of exaggeration. It is almost impossible to find words to describe just how difficult traffic conditions have become for people who live in and try to do business in Dublin. Already, in the last two weeks we have seen two examples of genuine gridlock. In both cases manageable incidents resulted, very quickly, in unmanageable chaos because of the sheer volume of traffic and the absence of public transport. I warn now, with no fear of being proved wrong, that if we think congestion is bad but will not get worse, we are very wrong.

It is inevitable that matters will worsen. Economic growth will be followed by population growth and the simple passage of time will mean more traffic. When those traffic volumes are superimposed on existing congestion, gridlock incidents such as those we have witnessed, will become commonplace. The tortuously slow travel times will become the norm. Only five or six years ago, travel times of half the current levels were thought to be outrageous. It shows what we are putting up with, as each year the congestion gets worse.

It will not stop there, however. Into this chaos must come the diggers, the JCBs, the tunnelling machines, the trucks and the machinery that will provide the metro, the extended Luas and the upgrade on the M50. These are the ingredients that will give zest to the cocktail of traffic congestion that already exists. No matter what we do now, or what ameliorative measures are taken, these works, albeit absolutely necessary, will bring street conditions from hell to Dublin. It is pointless for the Minister of State to talk about developments that will come about in five years time. That has nothing to do with what people will face next Monday and the week after.

All we can hope and plan for now is some way to manage the hell that faces us. It does not seem to be an overambitious target for a Government with endless resources just to try to keep the mayhem at bay. Yet, the Minister of State does not seem to have any conception of the depth, severity or urgency of what is facing us.

The Minister, the Minister of State and indeed the Taoiseach seem to think that simply announcing big capital projects is the end of the story; that somehow we can all put the need to move around on hold for the next five or ten years. It is not until then that we will see the benefits from the investment in public transport. Meanwhile, the construction of the proposed projects superimposed on congested conditions, will simply make matters worse. Promises for the future, welcome as they are, must be accompanied by short-term actions to manage the mayhem. That is all we can hope for.

On behalf of Fine Gael, I have consistently and persistently called for more buses. Lowly, uncool and hard to hype buses they may be, but despite their poor and sometimes unloved image, they are the only form of transport that can be provided quickly and the sole option for taking a proportion of cars off the road. We know that buses are not the whole solution but that does not mean we should just sit on our hands and do nothing. Doing nothing is not an option any more. Instead of growing the bus fleet and consequently the bus market, and responding to the calls of despairing populations going into these new isolated estates all around the M50 and further out, the Government has instead operated an entirely perverse policy of a zero increase in the fleet. At the very time when they are most needed, suddenly the coffers were dry and no buses were available. The result of this is that a static bus fleet is being spread over an increasing population and the ever growing geographic area Dublin Bus is serving. In turn, this has resulted in a poorer service for people who are forced to take buses and an actual drop in the numbers travelling at peak times into the city centre.

Simultaneously, more than €117 million has been spent on bus lanes, which have removed valuable road space from car drivers who have no alternative means of transport. Where buses were made available, they were taken from other areas so that people who had services found themselves deprived of them. Commuters fume at the sight of underutilised bus lanes — and in some cases bus lanes that have no buses at all, despite the money that was made available to build them. Buses are not the whole solution, but they can in sufficient numbers make a genuine and quantifiable contribution by removing at least some cars from the road. There is enormous unmet demand from commuters who have no hang-ups about using public transport. If it is available and reasonably frequent and reliable, people will use it; indeed they are clamouring for it.

Bus services must reflect the new polycentric city, not the limited single destination city of 20 years ago. It must serve where people live, where they work and where they recreate. The latter is becoming increasingly important. Around Dublin and throughout the country people need to socialise and the new drink driving ban demands a safe public transport response. Opening up the bus market could provide that response and at least partially serve the needs of those who have no scheduled bus services.

The figures released today about the transport contribution to carbon emissions are enough to generate a crisis response in terms of buses instead of private cars. Fine Gael has called for a liberalisation of the bus market in Dublin so that the private sector can, in conjunction with Dublin Bus, begin to respond to unmet demand. We have called for a regulator to manage the network and ensure standards, but primarily we need the extra capacity, consumer orientation and the additional efficiencies competition can bring to this crucial problem in Dublin.

There is no co-ordination or sense of urgency from Government. Unless there is a press conference in prospect, the Minister is not involved. The proactive finding and implementing of solutions, as well as responding to emerging issues is of no interest to the Minister. He had the nerve to tell Members he was dismayed there had been no response to the money he had made available for park and ride facilities. There has been no response for several years and the Minister did not feel any obligation to be in any way proactive or to wonder why people did not provide such facilities. While the local authorities have expressed an interest in providing parking facilities, there is not much point unless people have something on which to ride when they park. The Minister simply sits on his hands as though it had nothing to do with him.

At present, the management of the road network is permanently on the brink of collapse and attention to immediate measures is vital. Buses are one solution while traffic management is another. This area has been completely neglected and it is beginning to show. The traffic corps is overwhelmed by the demands made on it and even with Operation Freeflow, it is unable to cope. The critical junctions and heavily trafficked areas are still unmanned. The traffic corps must be supplemented with mobile, specially trained and patrolling civilian traffic managers or with similar teams drawn from the Garda Reserve. As traffic congestion becomes more acute, traffic management becomes all the more vital.

As for communications, more traffic lights should be attached to the SCATS system in the city centre. Of course, there is no point in so doing if no one is looking at them or if no one communicates to those on the ground who could do something about problems. Far more attention and focus on traffic management is required. More buses, more focused bus services and a liberalisation of the bus market in order that there can be a response to local demand is also needed.

The city is now so close to chaos that we must assiduously manage our road network or face recurring gridlock incidents, such as those which have been experienced recently, as well as ever higher levels of stress among the hapless commuters of Dublin. Ultimately, the economy will collapse as it becomes ever more difficult to conduct business in the capital city.

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