Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

The Minister stated that the three objectives are jobs, schools and health care. When this €17 billion is spent, it looks as if about 50,000 of the 447,000 currently out of work will be positively impacted by this investment, which is incredibly disappointing. We all understand that there is a very constrained financial situation imposed on this State at the moment. With the very limited time available, I would like to focus on one or two issues and I regret we do not have a lot more time.

The balance between capital spending on roads and public transport in recent programmes has improved in recent years. On this particular occasion, it has been skewed dramatically in favour of roads as opposed to public transport. There is twice the Exchequer spend on roads than on public transport, and that is very regrettable. I would like to deal with one particular issue that could bring competitiveness if we invest correctly. The State will recover from the city outwards and this particular city region is the biggest city, especially when counties that border it are included. Since the Dublin transport initiative in the early 1990s, in which I was involved, the interconnector and what has become the DART underground has been part of every capital programme. It would link the 19th century railway lines, which all terminated on the periphery of the city. They were never networked. That network would produce an absolutely astonishing result. Barry Kenny of Irish Rail has said that it would be a "game changer". It will treble the rail capacity from the current 33 million passengers per annum to 100 million per annum.

The money invested from Structural Funds in the early 1990s was based on various themes. One of the reasons for investment in public transport, such as the Luas and other projects, was because it would make this area more competitive. Congestion was causing a serious impediment to doing business in this region. The one project that could have pulled all that together and been a real driver of competitiveness was the DART underground, or the interconnector. I think it is absolutely criminal that this is not going ahead.

We have to be imaginative about some of these projects. Even in the dark days of the 19th century, money was put into the railway system. Most of it was put in from private funds. There may well be scope in the pension funds to invest in something that would produce a return like this particular project. Part of the reason for proposing the new children's hospital at a site on the Mater hospital was due to the public transport improvements to be made. They are now being downgraded from the capital programme and that is very regrettable.

If we are going to recover, we have to give ourselves the best possible chance. By not investing in some of these big capital projects, such as DART underground and metro north, we are reducing the capacity of that part of the country that has the numbers and needs that extra lift in competitiveness. We are reducing the chance of an early recovery by virtue of that one particular decision.

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