Jim Glennon (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to have an opportunity to respond to the Labour Party's motion on transport in Dublin. It is worthwhile to reflect on what we mean when we talk about public transport in the city. While the phrase "public transport" is most commonly used when talking about buses, trains and now, thankfully, the Luas system, we should bear in mind that there are other categories of public transport. I remember once reading a gossip column on the back page of a Sunday newspaper. The columnist wrote that she had been asked at a function a few days earlier when she had last travelled on public transport. Her response was that she used Aer Lingus quite regularly. Public transport is all-embracing. Air and sea travel can be considered as forms of public transport. There happens to be a major terminus for almost every form of public transport in my constituency. While there is no sea port in the constituency, such a facility will be developed shortly, all going well. Public transport is of considerable importance to the people of Dublin North, not only because they depend on it to get to and from work every day but also because a significant proportion of them work in the transport sector.

I will put this debate in context by reminding the House how far we have come in a relatively short period of time. I will use figures from 1997 for the purposes of comparison, rather than to make a political point. I am taking 1997 as a starting point because I have statistics from that year. A major programme of expenditure on the national rail network — it did not just relate to Dublin — was commenced in 1997. When we look back at it from this juncture, it is remarkable that we had to spend more than £400 million, or €500 million, to make the rail network safe. Everyone accepted at the time that such repairs were needed. I mention such figures to put in context the state our national transport services were in a short time ago. The problems we faced ten years ago resulted from generations of continual non-investment, as opposed to mere under-funding, by Governments of all hues. There was a lack of investment for a very good reason — no money was available. The investment of money to maintain our public transport network was seen as a luxury when compared to more worthwhile projects in other sectors of the economy. It is as simple as that.

One of the great benefits of the arrival of the Celtic tiger — I will not put a date on its arrival because I do not want to politicise it — has been the increase in the level of resources available to develop infrastructure in all sectors of the economy. All one has to do is look around the country to see that the transport sector has got a fair crack of the whip in that regard. As someone who lives on the north side of Dublin, I have been a regular visitor to the North of Ireland for the last 30 years. In years gone by, it was always a pleasure to travel to the North. One could always tell when one had crossed the Border into the North, even if one was asleep in the back of the car, because the road surface there was much better than the road surface in this jurisdiction. That set of circumstances has now been reversed, thankfully. Our Northern visitors look on our road network, particularly the M1, with envy. Similarly, the rail service between Dublin and Belfast is tremendous. One can make the journey in extreme comfort in two hours, with a high rate of punctuality. While we have come a long way, we are by no means there yet. We are playing catch-up in the area of infrastructure, as we are in so many other areas. I hope the current level of funding will remain on-stream for a long time to come and that the recent investment in transport and other areas can be maintained.

A cultural shift is necessary in this regard. When the great success story that is the Luas project was in its planning stages less than ten years ago, nobody thought it was worthwhile to take some considerable care to provide appropriate and adequate park and ride facilities, particularly at outlying Luas stations like Sandyford. Any time I have visited the facility that is provided at the Sandyford terminus, I have observed how utterly inadequate it is. When the facility was being designed, it was considered to be appropriate. It is the only park and ride facility of any size on the Luas network. We are learning as we go along. We are trying to make up for the chronic under-investment or non-investment of years gone by. A statistic that is sometimes used about the railway service is that not one mile of new railway track was laid in Ireland in the 20th century, whereas several hundred miles of railway track were lifted in the same period.

I will continue to be somewhat parochial by speaking about the north side of Dublin. Deputy Ellis referred to the increase of 40% in the capacity of the Dundalk suburban railway line, which is obviously extremely welcome. A further increase of 40% is needed, however. I hope that will be facilitated by the construction of the new railway station in the docklands area. The new station will ease considerably the disproportionate congestion at Connolly Station, which is a major problem for commuters coming into and leaving the city. The docklands station will be of major benefit to the International Financial Services Centre. The forthcoming development of the metro north system to Swords should ease dramatically the difficulties experienced by people on the north side. I urge those who are charged with planning the metro north terminus at Lissenhall to ensure there are adequate park and ride facilities for the projected numbers of metro travellers. That is particularly important in light of my earlier comments about the park and ride facility at the Sandyford Luas terminus. The potential for the development of a bus terminus on the Lissenhall site should be fully explored and exploited. A multi-storey parking facility should be provided there, if necessary, in order that people from the entire north east who travel on the M1 to Swords can continue onwards to the city centre, on the metro or with Dublin Bus via a quality bus corridor. There would be no excuse for repeating the mistake that was made when the Luas system was being developed at Sandyford. If such errors are made again, we will all have egg on our faces, to put it mildly.

While it is expected of us to make some political capital out of the difficulties, if we were all honest with each other, we would realise that mistakes have been made but there has been a massive investment in transport, the benefits of which not only the commuter but the traveller to Dublin from further afield are reaping. The progress that has been made on the individual projects under the unjustifiably maligned Transport 21 bodes well for the future of transport in the city.

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