M J Nolan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, which is long overdue. Anyone who does business in Dublin city will be well aware of its major problems with traffic congestion, particularly over the past ten years. Much of this has resulted from the economic success of the country. In addition, with the migration of workers and other individuals and families from west to east, the population of the east coast has increased significantly over the past ten years and the number of people working on the east coast, particularly in Dublin, has increased by up to 250,000 since 1999. This has clearly brought problems in terms of infrastructure development in our capital city.

The Bill is important in that it gives the Dublin transport authority jurisdiction not only over Dublin city centre and the three local authorities in the county, but also over areas such as Meath, Kildare and parts of Wicklow. It is important that the Bill make provision for the control of the authority to be extended if required in the future. In Carlow, 6,000 people leave the town every day, the vast majority of them to work in Dublin. Many of these people travel by car, which adds to congestion in the city.

Successive Governments over a number of years have invested significantly in improving the road structure as well as rail links and bus services. We as a people have become far too car-dependent. We must change our mindset to move away from cars and towards public transport. Regrettably, over the past number of years we have not had a first-class public transport system on which we could all depend and thus many of us, including myself, were obliged to use our cars more than our European neighbours. However, over the past six years in particular the rail service has improved significantly, as has the bus service. This improvement must continue.

The Minister for Transport outlined an ambitious plan four years ago in Transport 21. If all aspects of this plan are implemented, using moneys ring-fenced for this purpose, we will see a major improvement in our transport infrastructure over the next number of years. The number of cars on our roads has doubled in the past eight years and the city is choking with traffic congestion. The only way we can change people's mindset is to give them confidence in a public transport system that works well and on which they can depend.

Local authorities have improved their work rates in that they manage road construction and repairs in a more efficient manner. There is greater co-operation between local authorities when two or more are involved in the same road works. It is welcome that they identify a lead authority and leave the running of the project to it. The Garda, by separating the functions of a specially designated traffic corps, has played its part in the improvements. I hope those improvements are ongoing.

This debate is timely because of the current crisis in oil production, including today's record price for a barrel of crude oil. The crisis will affect how everyone uses cars and oil, on which we are dependent. If the price continues to increase during the coming months, there will need to be a more radical examination of our car transportation and national cost base policies, given our dependence on exports. Take the example set by Manhattan in the city of New York. Fewer than 10% of Manhattan's residents own cars. The majority always use public transport or taxis. No business person in London uses his or her own car — business people use the subway because London has a good transport system. When Sydney built its Olympic stadium for the 2000 Olympic Games, it used that time of major investment to improve its public transport services and has consequently benefited. It is important to learn from the experiences of other countries.

While the draft legislation is focused on Dublin, it could be used as a template in other cities or towns experiencing growth and, therefore, traffic congestion. The Bill should experience an easy passage through the House because it will establish the DTA as the public authority charged with overall responsibility for surface transport in the Dublin area. If we are to succeed in establishing the authority in the short term, we should not spend too long in the consultation period. We are snowed under by reports on transport in Dublin city.

A number of Deputies raised the issue of integrated ticketing. I do not understand why, in today's age of computers and programmers, one cannot buy a ticket in Carlow or Kilkenny that can be used on bus, train and Luas services. The situation beggars belief.

I wish the Minister of State success with the Bill, which I hope is passed by the House speedily. The sooner the authority is put on stream, the better.

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