Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The documents on the banking rackets are profoundly disturbing. They are the most outrageous feature of this outrageous budget. Resolution No. 4 is another whammy for public transport and the transport industry after a series of measures this Government has taken. For example, all last year the Government had the opportunity to do something about the withdrawal by the European Union of the fuel rebate, to negotiate some sort of continuing support for public transport at EU level, and it failed to do that. Here again we have another measure which will make things much more difficult. At the same time in the capital budget we are removing approximately €320 million of spending on transport. The net impact will be a smaller subsidy for public transport. The most sinister phrase in the budget on capital spending is, "in public transport the way ahead will also see some deferrals and rescheduling of other programmes". This presumably refers to the whole range of public transport initiatives including perhaps, despite the Minister, Deputy Dempsey's recent speeches, metro north, the interconnector, the western rail corridor, the Navan rail line and so on. Are they all in danger as a result of today's debacle? I oppose Financial Resolution No. 4.

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