Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

As a Dublin Deputy I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Dublin Transport Authority Bill and fully support Deputy Fergus O'Dowd's motion before the House that the Bill should not be passed in its present form as there will be a severe lack of accountability in the operation of the Dublin transport authority if it is. My party is very fearful that by passing the Bill in its current form we will be party to setting up yet another super-quango which would be unaccountable to any Member of this House and might end up out of control like the HSE. This is the last thing we on this side of the House want to see happen. We must learn from the big mistakes that have been made regarding the HSE.

The Bill needs to be changed urgently. We want to see accountability and transparency from the new body. After all this Bill will remove planning and operational decisions relating to transport from the Minister for Transport. We want the Minister to answer parliamentary questions on topics relating to the work of the Dublin transport authority within deadlines as other Ministers do. We do not want the Minister to be able to refuse to answer questions by stating that it is a responsibility of the DTA.

I note the DTA will consist of a chairperson and nine members appointed by the Minister for Transport. However, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport should have a say in the appointment of members to the DTA board, as will be the case with the new broadcasting authority of Ireland Bill. Those potential appointees to the board should be called before the Oireachtas committee and questioned about their suitability before they are appointed.

As there are currently 16 separate bodies involved in delivering public transport to the citizens of Dublin, it is no wonder that in the past ten years the city has ground to a halt. The average speed in Dublin has crawled down to 14 km/h, which is slower than a horse and cart. Our city suffers from chronic traffic congestion which is costing it at least €650 million every year and probably much more. There is no integration between transport services because of the politics involved in the various bodies. While I welcome the proposal to distil these 16 bodies down to one, the Bill cannot be supported in its current format.

My own party recognised way back in 1986 that a co-ordinated approach was needed in this area. The then Minister for Transport, the late former Deputy Jim Mitchell, set up a Dublin Transport Authority to prevent fragmentation of services. However, the Fianna Fáil Government of 1987 scrapped the authority as part of its cutbacks. Looking back, while it might have been done with the best of intentions, it has certainly cost us all greatly both in financial and qualify of life terms.

A new Dublin transport authority has been promised for 11 years. However, a Bill has only come before the Oireachtas in the past few weeks. The Bill was rushed through the Seanad in two weeks, which was too quickly given that it will establish such a powerful organisation. Members should be given time to digest and debate the Bill adequately. I am concerned about that and am also disappointed that the proposed new authority will only be set up on a statutory basis with effect from 1 January 2009, which is in seven months time.

I find it bizarre that the current projects such as the metro, the interconnector and new Luas lines which are already under way will not be monitored by the authority. Is it wise that this new authority will not oversee the construction of the largest infrastructural projects in the history of the State? Instead the RPA is monitoring these projects. Why is the RPA not being absorbed into the Dublin transport authority?

The Minister for Transport promised the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, that a directly elected mayor of Dublin would be the automatic chairman of the DTA board but has now reneged on that promise which is of concern. At least with a directly elected mayor there would be some accountability regarding the body.

It is stated that 60% of people in the greater Dublin area rely on the car to get to work, because in many cases there is no public transport alternative. Just 15% of commuters use the bus, with less than 9% utilising rail services. In my constituency of Dublin North East there is not a proper transport service that services all the residents' needs. There are not enough buses and some of the routes could be improved upon. There was promise in the past of a Luas service passing through Coolock and servicing the north fringe areas which was later abandoned. In addition, the new DART station at Clongriffin, which was supposed to open after 1,000 residents moved into the area, has not happened. There are now 3,000 new residents living in new homes in the area yet there is no DART station and every promised deadline has been broken. I have recently yet again inquired about that DART station and have been advised that it will not be available until September 2009 which is totally unacceptable.

The Minister, Deputy Dempsey, needs to update the Road Transport Act 1932 urgently as it is currently taking up to two and a half years to get a decision on a route licence from his Department which is totally unacceptable. Updates to the 1932 legislation should have been included in the Bill but regrettably have not been. There is a delay by the Department in granting permission to Dublin Bus to operate the 41X route from Swords to the city centre through the Dublin Port tunnel which is wrong. I today ask the Minister to grant this licence to Dublin Bus which is trying to provide a good service to its customers.

Fine Gael wants the Government to open the Dublin bus market to competition immediately. We want to see integrated ticketing in place. The cost of such a system has been €13 million to date, yet we have nothing to show for that. We want to see new bus services and timetables devised to feed into metro and Luas, to include new housing estates and operate orbital routes, and provide non-stop services from the commuter belt. We want to see the M50 work completed as soon as possible. There seems to be no urgency at the moment. It seems to be dragging on year after year. Despite all the work there is no relief to the hard-pressed motorist on the M50. That work should be made a priority. The proposed €1 M50 toll increase is a complete rip-off and should not proceed.

I cannot support the Bill in its present form, as there would be a severe lack of accountability in the operation of the Dublin transport authority. If this Bill is passed I am very fearful that we will end up with another super-quango like the HSE, which would be unaccountable to any Member of this House and might end up out of control. I look forward to my comments being taken on board and the Bill being amended for the better.

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