Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to make my contribution and thank Deputy Chris Andrews for sharing time with me.

I am sure Deputies will expect me to mention Tallaght at some point in my contribution and I certainly intend to do so. The Public Transportation Regulation Bill 2009 is an important piece of our public transport regulation infrastructure. We have waited several decades for its introduction and I commend the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, on his initiative. He visited Tallaght recently but I did not have the opportunity to meet him due to parliamentary business. I am always happy to welcome Ministers to Tallaght.

The Bill proposes a number of important changes to public transport regulation. It reforms the existing bus route licensing regime, extends the public transport route procurement scheme for the greater Dublin area to the rest of the country, transforms the Dublin Transport Authority into the national transport authority and merges it with the Commission for Taxi Regulation. It also gives the national transport authority a consultative role in future regional planning guidelines.

As a born and bred Dubliner, I have no country blood. I bring to my politics the perspective of what happens in Dublin. Between 1994 and 2003 I sat on Dublin County Council and, later, South Dublin County Council, during which time I took a particular interest in transport issues. I was also a council nominee to the Dublin Transportation Office. As someone who lives about eight miles out of the city in Tallaght, I try to use public transport as much as possible. Next Saturday I intend to use the Luas to go to Croke Park in order to cheer the Irish soccer team, captained by a Tallaght man, Robbie Keane. The team also includes Richard Dunne.

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