Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I accept what the Minister is saying as regards unprecedented investment. That is not in question. I am concerned as to whether we are getting value for money for this unprecedented investment. There has never been a shortage of inputs in recent years. The question is whether we are getting the output we should be getting. Given the scale of promised investment and the returns on existing investment, one really has to ask this question. The port tunnel has cost the best part of €1 billion, for example, and the volume of traffic is between 6,000 and 8,000 vehicles a day while its capacity must be close to 150,000 per day. It will never grow very much beyond that level. The idea is not to pour traffic into the city and certainly not much more can be diverted onto the M50, so who precisely will use the tunnel? There are no buses in it, and of course there are none to put in it, even if someone was directing the usage of this tunnel. Nobody is co-ordinating these matters, or ensuring the tunnel is used. Earlier we spoke about rail freight and indeed already €1.5 billion has been put into the rail network. It is lying idle most of each day.

The Minister gave Deputy Shortall an example to the effect the private sector had undercut Iarnród Éireann. The reality is that the company's road haulage division undercut Iarnród Éireann and that is how it lost that contract. We were promised that the Phoenix Park tunnel, one of the best kept secrets, would be opened to bring traffic from Heuston to Connolly Station and perhaps relieve some of the congestion on the quays when the metro work starts. Now that is being reneged on because it might interfere with the interconnector project. Bus lanes are being built in jig-time. Some of them are empty, without even one bus to be seen. The school bus fleet is another area where there is enormous potential for increased output. There is no co-ordination, co-operation or integration of services. The result is that the synergies that should be available if someone was driving all these projects and ensuring they gave the best value for money, are just not happening in Dublin. When are we going to have the Dublin transportation authority that could drive these projects? Does the Minister accept we are getting less than optimal return as a result of not having such a body?

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