Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Dublin Transport Authority Bill. A Dublin transport authority has been promised for many years and I am glad we finally have a Bill before the House which allows Deputies to discuss how we can develop a successful integrated transport system for the greater Dublin area.

The simple fact is that Dublin and its surrounding counties have suffered more gridlock and transport chaos in the past two decades than they should have suffered due to the lack of a single unifying transport authority for the greater Dublin area. It is typical of the Government that we are getting our act together on this issue in the post-Celtic tiger era when massive expenditure on infrastructure may have to be cut back due to economic uncertainty.

The Dublin transport authority should have been in the leading advocacy role when planning the future of Dublin as part of Transport 21. A single strong voice on transport in the greater Dublin area could have had a greater impact on halting the rampant ribbon commuter development of the past 15 years. It is possible that, if a strong body such as the DTA had been established 15 years ago, we would have a more compact city of higher density, able to support a larger number of major public transport initiatives such as metro lines and fewer commuters spending many painful hours daily travelling to and from work.

It is clear that a single unifying body in control of transport planning and issues in the greater Dublin area is required. A body such as the DTA would be better equipped to take a lead in tackling issues, such as the gridlock which affects much of this city, than successive Fianna Fáil Governments and Ministers for Transport who, since 1997, have been unable to halt the increasing gridlock in the city, from which all of us suffer daily.

In my constituency of Dublin South-Central, the Terenure, Harold's Cross and Kimmage areas are badly affected by gridlock and I probably receive more representations on this issue than on any other. The area around Terenure crossroads experiences constant traffic jams but despite the efforts of Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council, Dublin Bus and others to put together a package to alleviate the problem, congestion remains as bad as ever. Everybody in the area heaves a sigh of relief when schools close because a number of secondary and primary schools located in the immediate area contribute to gridlock.

It is extremely frustrating for commuters who experience congestion at the point at which two major roads, Terenure Road West and Templeogue Road, converge. While I accept, as a strong supporter of public transport, that the bus corridor from Rathfarnham has priority at the crossroads, congestion in this location causes unacceptable problems for those trying to get to work. There has been no serious attempt to address the problem of traffic through Terenure or to establish a framework to improve matters for residents and commuters from as far away as Tallaght who use these two major routes. Those who use the other major arterial route into Dublin, Harold's Cross Road, also experience gridlock virtually every day, as I do unless I leave home at 6.45 a.m. At least I have the privilege of a degree of flexibility as to the times I can leave home. Many of my constituents have no such flexibility because they are committed to a specific time schedule.

I will wear my arts, sport and tourism hat to raise an important issue which must be addressed. A recent Fáilte Ireland study showed that traffic congestion has a very negative impact on tourism and tourists' experiences in the greater Dublin area. Tourism is vital to our capital's economy. According to the Dublin Regional Tourism Authority, more than €1.6 billion was spent by 5.6 million tourists to the Dublin region in 2006. We neglect the views and opinions of tourists at our economic peril, particularly given that Ireland is already expensive by European standards and suffers from unpredictable weather compared to many other European countries. For these reasons, we must not give tourists further reason not to visit Dublin. I hope, therefore, that a properly provisioned Dublin transport authority with significant powers will be able to tackle the city's gridlock and ensure a better experience for tourists and citizens.

It appears from figures emerging from the Department of Transport that target completion dates for projects under Transport 21 are being pushed out. The critical link up of the red and green Luas lines has been stalled and the future of proposed Luas lines, such as that from Lucan to the city centre via Ballyfermot, is clouded due to the constrained fiscal climate in which the Government finds itself.

Recently, when I spoke on Transport 21, I showed constituents a map of the areas affected by the programme. They pointed out a large area which looked a little like the Phoenix Park, in other words, it was blank. This suggests Transport 21 will not offer much good news to my constituency, although there has been a proposal to route a Luas line through the constituency. The proposed route has generated significant hostility because people are afraid the project will not impact positively on traffic flow and will take so long to deliver that it will be irrelevant. It is imperative the Dublin transport authority is established as soon as possible to help steer these vital projects through the choppy economic waters we face and ensure value for money.

The failure of successive Fianna Fáil Ministers for Transport to deliver integrated ticketing has been a bugbear of mine for a long time. Foreign tourists are also irritated to discover integrated ticketing is not in place in the greater Dublin area and anecdotal evidence suggests this results in a concentration of foreign tourists in the city centre. They do not see the ease with which they can move into the suburbs and, indeed, out of the city. If we had integrated ticketing, they would be more likely to use the various transport options — Luas, DART, rail etc. Dublin is probably unique by comparison with European cities. This integrated ticketing project has been in existence since 2002, but despite spending millions on integrated ticketing, the project has not been realised. I hope that with the DTA this project will be moved forward.

One of the reasons there has been difficulty in providing integrated ticketing is the lack of cross co-operation among all the major public transport providers in the greater Dublin area. One of the important roles of the DTA should be to co-ordinate the delivery of such a project. We should have had integrated ticketing in the Dublin area long ago. There are reasons for this. Its delivery is not a simple matter but it is so fundamental to encouraging people to use public transport that it must be seen as a priority.

The keyword in today's transport planning is "sustainability". This extends to the provision of houses, services and public transport. Dublin's future transport development must prioritise sustainable forms of transport, commuting and living. The ever-increasing price of fuel and the issue of global warming mean that commuting to Dublin from Gorey, Mullingar or Virginia will no longer be feasible on the scale it is currently. This necessitates an overarching body to help plan the city's transport development across all modes of transport, public and private. The Government has shown that it is not able to proactively manage and plan for the transport needs of the city and it is time the DTA was given the opportunity to do this on behalf of the people to ensure we have the sustainable forms of transport required for the Dublin area.

I want to address the lack of co-ordination between planning in Dublin city and the need for a quality transport system. A number of large residential developments have been allowed to go ahead in recent years. I speak with some passion about my constituency where many of these huge developments have been allowed to proceed. Leaving aside the other opinions I have on the merits of high-rise development, one of its knock-on effects is that the transport facilities in place are not nearly adequate for those living in those apartments, particularly in dense developments where there is a high level of occupancy. There is nothing like an adequate level of public transport for them.

Second, often car parking facilities are put in place around such developments and that means that people, because they do not have access to public transport, are obliged to use their cars, the consequence of which is gridlock. The planning department of Dublin City Council, for example, and the transport authority must merge to ensure that there is infrastructure to allow people to live in such high-rise densely-occupied apartments and at the same time have an adequate quality of life.

One must consider the anger engendered by virtue of finding oneself blocked at the bottom of Jamestown Road, as will inevitably happen arising from another development in my area. The local community very much welcomes the 300 affordable houses but it is extremely irritated by the fact that no account was taken of the knock-on effect in terms of the number of cars that will inevitably come out of that development and find themselves blocked at the bottom of Jamestown Road and on the Naas Road.

Anybody who knows the Naas Road will appreciate the difficulties along that stretch. One of the positive aspects of transport has been the Luas line. In my constituency, particularly in areas such as Drimnagh, Rialto and James's Street, it has been invaluable but the problem is that the capacity is far too small. People tell me that when the Luas arrives in Drimnagh, for example, in the morning it is chock-a-block and one cannot get on. The same happens at peak traffic times going home in the evenings. There are limitations in terms of the number of carriages and so on, but these are the kinds of matters that should have been thought through. The Naas Road is one of the areas served by the Luas line, which is a great service but it is not adequate to take the number of people using it. When planning for those new apartments was being put in place that was totally ignored. I ask for joined-up thinking in planning and traffic management.

I welcome the decision to publish the legislation that will finally set up the DTA and the Labour Party welcomes the prospect of a sustainable transport network and accessible public transport.

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