Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

After a very long gestation period, the Bill has at last emerged into the House. We hope it will address the issues that have been in need of attention for some time. Transport requirements have changed dramatically in the past ten years in particular. What was sufficient ten or 15 years ago is no longer sufficient or relevant. In fact the emphasis is now on meeting the needs of consumers or commuters. There are different requirements in different areas. We have the daily commuter and the person who travels on an irregular basis. One way or another the tradition used to be that the service was provided and the public could use it when the public were available to use it. That is not the way things work.

This legislation is like all the other legislation that comes before us, as the Acting Chairman knows. We tend to welcome Bills at the start, look at them for a couple of years, discover they were not as good as we thought they were in the first place and we wonder why we introduced them at all. This is an extraordinary situation. It has happened in the case of every piece of legislation I have seen introduced since I entered this House, and that was not today or yesterday.

The integrated system has been mentioned. What about integrating the timetables in such a way as to make it convenient for bus users and train users adjacent to the main commuter routes to have a co-ordinated and integrated system that would work so that potential passengers have more than one choice? When they drive down to the bus stop, railway station or whatever it is, if they do not make it one way they should be able to go by another route. That is healthy and useful competition. As there is no place for cherry picking, the two services should be complementary to each other.

Lo and behold, however, what happens when a Deputy tables a parliamentary question to the Minister to ask about such an issue? It always happens that the Minister has no responsibility to the House. Nothing ever changes. It is sad to think that five or six years ago a Deputy could table the same parliamentary question and the Minister had responsibility to the House and answered the question because he knew it was relevant to his Department. All things have changed. We talk about Dáil reform. It is reverse reform we have had. It is very pertinent in this area as I know because I tabled the questions. When I tabled questions five, ten, 20 and 25 years ago, there was no difficulty getting answers to those questions. It is now an appalling fact of life that the Minister will not answer the simplest question along those lines because he is not compelled to answer. Why does he not want to answer? He has been too long in the job. Why has he been too long in the job? He has become accustomed to recognising that he can be expected to treat the House with contempt.

The Acting Chairman is looking at me in a peculiar fashion.

See this speech in context