Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to make some comments on Transport 21 around the time of the second anniversary of its launch. The Transport 21 programme was launched with great fanfare by the Minister's colleagues, the former Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, and several of his ministerial colleagues including the Taoiseach, Deputy Ahern, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, and the then Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, on 1 November 2005. At that time the Labour Party spokesperson on transport, Deputy Shortall, welcomed the establishment of the ten year transport plan, particularly a number of its key proposals including metro north and west, the western rail corridor and the upgrading of the national inter-urban road network and the Dublin rail interconnector.

A key concern of the Labour Party at that time was the ability of this Government to deliver on the many promises contained in Transport 21. That concern was strengthened by the fact that most of the promises in the Government's earlier platform for change remained undelivered two years ago. It is hugely disappointing now that just two years later, those fears are coming to pass and there are major question marks over the ability of this Minister and his Department of Transport to realise Transport 21 on time and in budget.

Last week I submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, on the serious slippage now widely reported on many Transport 21 projects. The reply I received contained a litany of excuses from the Minister about delays which pointed to the poor management of Transport 21 by him, his Department and the former Minister, Deputy Cullen. The majority of projects due for completion between 2006 and 2009 have been either seriously delayed or will miss the original date of completion. According to this Minister, the scheduled completion date for metro north, for example, has now moved back to 2013 to "take account of scope changes made which arise from public consultation". The Tallaght to Citywest Luas extension "has been revised from 2008 to 2010 to accommodate a longer alignment than originally planned". The Connolly to Docklands Luas has also a revised completion date of 2009 rather than 2008 because of concerns of businesses in the International Financial Services Centre about the impact of construction.

Even more disturbing is that the initiative to link the red and green Dublin Luas lines has been stalled, with no deadline for the completion of that important project. I note the Minister did not mention that in his contribution. According to the Minister, Dublin Bus expressed serious concerns about the impact the preferred Luas alignment would have on its operations. The Minister went on to say that Dublin City Council is currently undertaking traffic modelling work as part of its examinations regarding the Luas city centre link and the further extension to Liffey junction, line D. We have had a litany of excuses as to the reason we have not moved on that important key development in Dublin city transport. The Minister's response both to my parliamentary question and here this evening is astonishingly vague.

The construction timetable for the Cork commuter rail service to Midleton has been pushed back to 2009 at the earliest instead of 2008. As the Minister said, the construction timetable has yet to be finalised. In County Laois, the Portlaoise train depot will not now be completed until 2008 instead of 2007 because of planning issues, according to the Minister. He also reports that delays due to tendering issues on the Limerick southern ring road project have pushed its completion date back to 2010.

To refer to his own area, the Minister said that the completion date for part 1 of the Navan rail link has been revised back to 2010 due to what he said is a later than planned submission of the railway order application. How did that delay occur? Furthermore, the Dublin city centre rail resignalling project, which was expanded to include the Maynooth line, is resulting in a longer construction period and now has a 2011 completion date.

We continue to move backwards with this Minister in regard to project after project. For example, construction starts on the M3 and M25 Waterford city bypass have been seriously delayed. We are aware of the position on the M3. Phase 1 of the M50 was to be completed this year but now will not be finished until late next year at the earliest. It is an astonishing list of missed deadlines and delays to the original timeframe of Transport 21. Serious questions arise about the ability of the Minister and his Department to deliver the programme within the timeframe. The programme rightly has a huge budget of €34 billion of public money given that our national transport infrastructure, including public transport, and the national rail structure has been greatly in need of significant investment for many years.

The Labour Party has long advocated a comprehensive and rigorously planned long-term programme of upgrading and maintenance of Ireland's national transport networks but with such serious investment in Transport 21, the public must have full confidence that the programme will be carried out in an effective and efficient manner. Unfortunately, in the past two years we do not have evidence of that from this Minister in his Department.

In the light of that litany of failure, in United Kingdom terms, with respect to one or two departments there, we might ask if this Minister and his Department of Transport are fit for purpose. Can the Department carry out a fundamental remit given to it by this Oireachtas? In the previous Dáil responsibility for the marine was unnecessarily broken up and scattered throughout the Government, so to speak. Responsibility for ports and marine transport was added to an already large new Department of Transport, with a critical national mandate. Last night and today, further sections of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government have been removed from that Department into the growing empire that is the Department of Transport with responsibility for the marine. Since this Minister has taken the reigns of that Department, following the disastrous privatisation of Aer Lingus by his predecessor, Deputy Martin Cullen, we have had the Shannon and the learner drivers debacles. We are now entitled to ask whether that Department is capable of delivering this huge programme of vital national importance.

The Minister should provide a full explanation tonight of the overall management of Transport 21 by him and his Department since taking up the role of Minister. Most people would understand that one or two projects might encounter unforeseen difficulties in their implementation and the planning and consultation issues that arise but not the number of projects I have outlined. For example, will the Minister tell the House whether it is the case that the rail cars that I understand were bought from Japan and Korea for the new Sligo rail line had to be shipped back for additional safety repairs? The Minister may know about it. Perhaps he will enlighten the House.

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