Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

In common with my Labour Party colleagues, I congratulate Deputy Shortall. It seems incredible that Members should be obliged to devote so much time to something which should be an asset, namely, transport and how one can travel from point A to point B. This has become the bane of people's lives. How can one get to work or the shops or visit relatives? It has become an impossible task.

While the motion under discussion is flagged clearly as one to deal with transport problems in Dublin, I wish to talk briefly about three areas in my constituency of Cork North-Central. For instance, Glanmire is one of the fastest growing areas outside of Dublin and now has a population of 30,000. The community is mixed, as originally it was an old community but has become a community of young commuters. While it has a growing youth population, the only bus service available to it is one that originally serviced and still services a rural area. Although I would love to be in a position to discuss light rail, Cork is not at that point. If one is lucky, the bus comes once an hour. To ensure one gets onto the bus at the morning peak times, one must be driven one mile down the road to meet the bus. Even if one manages eventually to get a seat or simply get on the bus, as most people must stand, it will not reach the Cork Institute of Technology, one of the third level institutions, in time for lectures. This is incredible.

In the Cork North-Central district of Farranree the established bus service has been cut back so badly that one could be obliged to wait for anything up to one and a quarter hours for a bus. While Farranree had a regular bus service, it has been so deprived of money that it is now worse than it has ever been in the lifetime of that community. Any new buses that come on stream replace buses that have become so clapped out that they now constitute a health hazard.

I refer to Watergrasshill which is slightly outside my constituency and which has become a victim of a bypass. Originally it was served by a bypass, namely, the Watergrasshill bypass, which worked well. However, the Government decided to toll the road which has now become the Fermoy bypass. In so doing, to ensure the road tollers would have sufficient traffic to make it financially viable, the Government handed over the Watergrasshill bypass to those who now own the toll road. This has ensured traffic that does not wish to use the toll road now comes thundering through Watergrasshill.

I visited Watergrasshill last week. It is a small rural village with only one street. One can no longer hold a conversation at the side of the road because of the volume of noise and trucks thundering through the village. This is a consequence of putting in place a toll road that effectively has split a community in two and has made the village unsafe for people to walk in. It is a beautiful village but the residents' entire lifestyle has been taken away as a result of a toll road. They wish to meet the Minister, as they believe him to be singularly responsible for this state of affairs. They wish to do so after Christmas and he should accede to their request.

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