Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

We do not need bus lanes 24 hours a day. By contrast, bus lane restrictions in the Dublin City Council area are confined to times of busy transportation levels. I do not understand the logic that informs such different approaches. These problems are not confined to bus lanes, incidentally. As one drives from one local authority area to another, one can observe the recent phenomenon of a proliferation of poles on every single road in the country. Anybody driving along Northumberland Road should count the number of signs that have been put up there. There is a different signage arrangement in the next local authority area. There needs to be rationality brought across the range, which can only be done by the type of integrated approach the Minister is proposing in the legislation.

The Government is committed to radical improvement in public transport services in the GDA. I do not believe it is unique to Government. It is a commitment all in this House share. Notwithstanding the validity of some of the comments made by Deputy Mitchell, it is very important that we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The Bill has a considerable amount to commend it. It is not a false dawn but the start of some hope for transport users in the greater Dublin area.

In my last minute I will be parochial. The model of the NRA is being used here. Having failed to persuade the NRA to be a little more attentive to maintenance on the new superb motorways it has opened, can it at least attend to the weeds on one or two of them, particularly those that go through the garden of Ireland?

See this speech in context