Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

Yes. I do not know whether he is now a member of the Cowen or Bertie gang or some other gang.

The Bill relates to the questions of how people get to and from work, quality of life and improving services. In principle, Fine Gael supports the establishment of a Dublin transport authority. The Bill has many positive elements, but there is a serious democratic deficit in the proposals. The Minister of State's comments regarding the growth in Dublin's population were correct, but the average speed of a car, bus or whatever in the city is 13 kph. The average speeds in Belfast and in Cologne in Germany are 27 kph and 40 kph, respectively. The city's serious transport issues, such as bottlenecks, must be addressed. The Bill, which proposes to establish and provide new powers for an authority, is at the core of changing how we live and get to work.

The president of a strategic transport group gave a logistics speech in which he stated that in 1957, when Sputnik was launched, one could go to and from the airport in 20 minutes during rush hour. The situation has changed considerably. Family life and the economy suffer when people cannot be on time for work because of bottlenecks and trucks breaking down on essential transport corridors. The business community estimates that €2 billion is lost to the economy per year due to traffic delays. This serious issue affects people adversely. Even minor delays, such as flooding or, as occurred last year, the overturning of a truck on an inner bypass just off the M50, can block the city for hours.

Family life has suffered greatly as a result of congestion in cities, with families enjoying poor quality time together. The figures given by the Minister of State in respect of the considerable population increase in the greater Dublin area are accurate, but tired children are going to bed even before their tired parents get home, meaning that the latter do not get to see their children. Family life and commuters suffer greatly due to our poor transport system. That is not to claim that there are no good proposals, such as the metro and so on, but this is the world in which we live. As we change it and try to create a new, dynamic body to address current and future transport problems, we must consider what is being done at present.

My criticisms of the Bill relate to the democratic deficit. Given the comments of the Minister of State and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, it is a key consideration that a body such as this authority does not become a HSE for transport — the HSE is unaccountable and has no transparency or openness. The fact that public representatives are not involved in its management structure or anywhere along the line is its key weakness. It will also be the key weakness in the DTA. I am referring to democratic accountability as opposed to democratic control.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has made much of the Green Paper setting out his plans for an elected lord mayor of Dublin. The next local elections will take place in one year's time but the Minister does not plan to introduce his provisions until 2011. The problem is that there is a lack of commitment to the introduction of a directly elected lord mayor. This Bill will come into force on 1 January 2009. On 1 June or 1 July next year, after the local elections, there is no reason that a newly elected lord mayor should not take the chairmanship of this authority. This would be a way of addressing the significant democratic deficit that exists in the legislation. Appointing the lord mayor to the chairmanship will help to ensure the activities and policies of the Dublin transport authority are accountable, transparent and open. The Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, said that Government policy in this regard would be outlined in the White Paper. However, he did not say that the lord mayor will be the chairman of the authority. I presume, therefore, that there is some doubt in this regard. I ask that he clarify this key issue.

For the purposes of accountability, the membership of the advisory board should include elected representatives. One of the key recommendations of the body which looked at the problems that might arise in regard to the work of the proposed Dublin transport authority was that the advisory body should include one elected representative for each of the regions in the Dublin area. However, that proposal has been thrown out by the Minister, Deputy Dempsey. The year's delay in the introduction of this legislation has resulted in less democratic accountability than we anticipated and expected. The Minister seems to have used that time to water down the accountability and transparency provisions.

I can find no reference in the Bill to accountability to the Dáil. We on this side of the House will not vote for the legislation unless it includes such a provision.

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