Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, and his officials on tabling this long overdue Bill. Since being appointed Chairman of the Joint Committee on Transport last September, the most striking feature of the transport and infrastructure provision in the greater Dublin area has been the lack of joined-up thinking. A serious deficit in leadership has resulted in the failure to take courageous decisions and a lack of vision regarding providing an integrated transport system for the Dublin region. Both issues are being addressed through the establishment of the Dublin transport authority.

As outlined in the Bill, the new authority and its constituent bodies will deal effectively with the complex issues that numerous agencies have failed to address over the years. I welcome the transport and land use planning element of the Bill. In recent years, it has been amazing how we have often forgotten about an integrated transport system until after a major development has been put in place. I welcome that the Dublin Transportation Office will be subsumed by the DTA, as the former has given good leadership in recent years.

The traffic capacity of Dublin's road network was reached 15 years ago. After unprecedented economic growth, pressure on the network has since increased by 300% and little additional road capacity has been provided. Progress in the past ten years has been painstakingly slow. My committee's exchange with the various transport agencies revealed a lack of urgency, a failure to take hard decisions and a glaring lack of co-ordination and joined-up thinking in the implementation of an action plan to tackle Dublin's congestion problems. An example of such procrastination is to be found in the introduction of integrated ticketing. Every similar city in Europe provides for an integrated ticketing system, but full introduction here will take us a further two years.

The DTA's greatest challenge will be the necessity to change from our car-dependent culture to public transport. Those against change will argue that nothing can be done until we have a proper public transport alternative. While this is true, we cannot provide such an alternative if every possible obstacle is put in change's way. The proposal for a quality bus network in Dublin is a typical example. For a high-quality and reliable service, buses must be able to move at between 20 km/h and 30 km/h. Quality bus corridors must be put in place, but business, political, local and national opposition has succeeded in putting the brakes on the roll-out of the quality bus corridor network in Dublin. The highly successful bus corridor from Heuston to O'Connell Bridge on the north quays was delayed in the final six months before its implementation by senior members of Government. I will not be critical of anyone in particular, but this goes to show how difficult it is to make necessary changes and how far vested interests are prepared to go to stop change occurring.

One would expect that AA Ireland, which purports to represent motorists, would take a positive approach to the requirement to change our car-dependent culture to make life better for motorists but it does not. Mr. Conor Faughnan was vehemently opposed to the introduction of the Stillorgan bus corridor, making the case that traffic chaos would ensue were a bus priority measure established. We now know that the corridor has become one of the most successful quality bus corridors in Europe. At peak times, buses operate at a frequency of one per minute, giving motorists a high-quality and reliable alternative while allowing those who must travel by car or commercial vehicle better travelling conditions.

Recently, the Dublin City Business Association complained about traffic management measures to be put in place to facilitate the DTO proposal of a bus gate at College Green. Surely Dublin city centre business must realise the negative impact of traffic congestion on its growth and development. An examination of many major cities throughout Europe with quality bus services shows how Dublin Bus becoming the workhorse in a co-ordinated onslaught on traffic congestion would have a positive impact. Dublin Bus has a vital role to play during the next five years before a rail network is introduced in the city. The DTA will have limited success if our society is unprepared to accept the difficult decisions required if we are to make the switch from cars to public transport. In the short term, this means choosing the bus.

The DTO's "One Small Step" campaign focuses on personal responsibility and co-operation in tackling Dublin's traffic problems. I welcome the Minister's support of a key message of the campaign, namely, that if everyone who uses a car regularly leaves his or her car at home for just one trip per week, it would reduce the number of car trips per day in Dublin by an average of 10,000. The workplace travel plans promoted by the DTO and supported by the Minister are a mechanism whereby all of us can begin to use public transport, at least on some occasions. The one thing I have learned since becoming involved is that, if we use public transport once every week or fortnight, we would solve Dublin's traffic problems. I am particularly pleased that, at my suggestion, the Ceann Comhairle has agreed to a meeting with the DTO's executives to discuss a workplace travel plan for the Members and staff of the Oireachtas. We should give example when it comes to switching from using our cars every day to using public transport some of the time. The new DTA will give the lead on many of these issues but much can be achieved if we take a pragmatic and courageous approach to traffic congestion.

The Joint Committee on Transport will soon present to the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, a short-term plan for the development of an efficient bus network in Dublin. I hope that the implementation of this plan will be one of the first tasks of the Dublin Transport Authority. Ten years ago the DTO launched a short-term action plan to deal with traffic congestion in Dublin. Some days ago, I wrote the introduction for the committee's report to the Minister. I could use the exact same introduction that was used ten years ago, which speaks for itself.

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