John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

The growth in our economy in the past decade has underpinned and afforded us the opportunity to embark on such an ambitious project as Transport 21. Deputy Mitchell referred to delays in several projects before suggesting that we go back to the drawing board and start the process all over again. We cannot go back there.

Historically, we have not had the opportunity to allocate sufficient investment in public transport services and infrastructure. Transport 21 is the first major initiative that encompasses several types of transport, including metro, Luas, roads, Dublin Bus and so on. Members from all sides welcomed this initiative. Transport 21 is a project to which more than €30 billion was allocated and which was to run from 2006 to 2015. There have been time delays on certain projects but the scale of those delays is being exaggerated to an unfair degree.

Transport 21 envisages 175 million additional public transport journeys, including 75 million additional suburban rail journeys. Metro north will allow commuters to travel to the city centre in 17 minutes. The plan will accommodate 80,000 additional bus journeys per day and 80 million Luas and metro journeys per annum. There will be seven new Luas projects.

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