John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

It is important that everybody grasps the scale of the project. Deputy Mitchell may laugh but there is no doubt that it is happening. The realisation of an ambitious project will always involve issues and difficulties. We must bear in mind that some of the delays that have been mentioned arose as a consequence of people exercising their democratic rights in respect of the planning process. In regard to many of these projects, including some in my area, a public consultation process has commenced and progress is being made. Some projects in my area included in Transport 21 are at the planning stage, others are at public consultation and others still are under construction.

Deputy Cuffe spoke earlier about land use and transportation. It is important to bear in mind that Transport 21 not alone provides transport solutions to existing communities but opens up and affords new areas of development, particularly in my area of Dublin. The Adamstown and Clonburris strategic development zones are examples.

Adamstown is a new area being developed which is serviced by mainline rail and Dublin Bus. A couple of hundred housing units have been built and before any were occupied, the train station was built and operational. That is the way we must go forward. People speak about Transport 21 and what it is providing. Not alone is it serving our existing communities but the plan is for it to serve new communities in future, which I welcome.

My constituency of Dublin Mid-West has the main population centres of Clondalkin and Lucan, and metro west is a very welcome development there. At this stage metro west has gone through the initial public consultation and a preferred route has now been selected. Metro west links Tallaght, Clondalkin, Lucan and Blanchardstown to metro north and out to Dublin Airport and beyond. For people living in Clondalkin and Lucan, the metro is not just about the connection to the airport, far from it.

For too long, we have considered facilities revolving around Dublin city, and this is where some of these projects come into their own. People living in Clondalkin and Lucan use other areas, such as the hospitals and third-level colleges in Blanchardstown and Tallaght and shopping facilities in Liffey Valley, Tallaght and Blanchardstown. It is important that we look in future at where people are travelling to and working. Not all routes should necessarily lead to Dublin city.

Some previous speakers referred to integrated and co-ordinated services as if they are not happening or were not being planned. Going through public consultation and what is happening on the ground, it is precisely what is happening in my area. The metro and Kildare route project integrate at Fonthill, which is the key element of the development in bringing together these services. Park and ride facilities will also be provided.

People have stood up here and stated that there is no integration among services but we are not seeing evidence of this on the ground. The Tallaght Luas line will also integrate with the proposed new metro west. There is a significant level of integration and people are choosing, when contributing here to the debate on Transport 21, to blatantly ignore what is happening on the ground.

I will refer to the M50, which is mentioned almost every day on the news. The Red Cow roundabout, as we formerly knew it, is effectively gone, replaced by a building site for an interchange. The works are causing problems for people living in the area, such as myself, family and friends, along with others who travel through the junction every day. However, we can see improvements. It will certainly not be complete in 2007 but a substantial piece of the Red Cow site will be completed early in 2008, offering significant alleviation at one of the worst bottlenecks this country has seen on a daily basis.

This is not isolated, and I would return to the point of acting in a co-ordinated way. As soon as the Red Cow is finished, the previous junction at Newlands Cross is marked for improvement. The transport projects we are embarking upon are integrated and closely related.

Much has been made of the fact that costings are not available for metro west. I agree with the Ministers arguing against showing its total cost. We cannot give away a competitive advantage by indicating how much money we have. Tendering companies will know the ballpark figures but if we are to be truly competitive, we cannot give the total cost away in advance. We should seek best value for money for the taxpayer.

Others have stated it is Government spin that reports projects are coming in on time and within budget. That is rubbish as the Government does not report this. Such matters have frequently come before the Committee of Public Accounts, which is chaired by a member of the Opposition. In recent years that committee has found transport projects, and particularly road projects, have come in on time and ahead of budget. They are coming in considerably differently in the past three years than they were four, five and six years ago.

It should be acknowledged that this is not Government spin. For people to stand up in this House and state that such spin is just giving the impression that projects are coming in on time is to be untruthful. The reality is the Committee of Public Accounts, chaired by a member of the Opposition, has time and again come to the same conclusions in recent years.

During leaders' questions this morning, people queried if Dublin Bus has extra bus capacity or if it has replacement buses. Last year Dublin Bus got 100 additional buses. Approximately a dozen of these buses are on a route in my area, the 151. To be fair to Dublin Bus, it did something which was novel and a bit of a challenge by running the buses on the quality bus corridors rather than through housing estates. They run from Adamstown to Grangecastle to the city centre and the IFSC, and they are making much better journey times than before. In excess of 25,000 passengers are now using that bus on a weekly basis, a significant number.

As we consider the sprawl outside Dublin city, one area I would see as being slow and weak in development has been park and ride facilities. We have put in QBCs, we have rural buses and the Dublin Bus service, but we do not have adequate park and ride facilities for people coming from ten or 20 miles away, who have to drive right into Dublin city. That is a pity. The Luas service has a park and ride facility at the Red Cow, which is well used. We should provide such services in the short term, although Transport 21 is planned to run for a decade.

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