Dáil debates

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Public Transport Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

5:55 pm

Photo of Robert DowdsRobert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for allowing me to speak at short notice. As a Dublin Deputy, the Minister knows the importance of improving our public transport system for the working of the city and surrounding towns, as well as for the general good of the country. Improving our public transport system does not solely involve making life easier for people in Dublin; it also involves making life easier for the whole country.

I have no problem with the proposals on metro north and trying to get links to the airport and Swords, places that clearly need greatly improved public transport. I want to draw the attention of the Minister to the total inadequacy of the situation on the west side of the city, through my constituency and into County Kildare. The main line from Dublin to Cork, Kerry, Galway and so on runs from my constituency and into Kildare. Considerable investment has gone into that and in parts it has been turned from a two-line to a four-line railway, but very few people in my constituency use the service. Deputy Lawlor might refer to his constituency.

7 o’clock

I suspect it is probably used a bit more because it is probably more worthwhile to use it if one is coming a longer distance than a shorter distance. My constituency has three stations which are hardly used at all. These are Adamstown, Kishogue, which is built but closed, and the Clondalkin Fonthill station. Why are these stations not used? It is not because there are not people who want to get access to the city centre. They are not used because using them would be too slow because of how the railway has been built and because subsequent development has largely left the population centres a distance away from the railway, whether it be Naas, if one goes out that far, Lucan or Clondalkin. There are proposals to develop the land along the railway which would be good. There is a real need for the Government and whoever succeeds it - I hope we will have the re-election of the current Government - to prioritise development there because it is the only way to keep the city functioning as an economic entity and for the well-being of its people.

Public transport works where people can travel fastest from A to B by public transport rather than by private transport. This should always be our aim. If we do not prioritise this work and improve the links from Heuston Station to the city to connect to the Dundrum Luas and the DART we will very rapidly get to a situation where the M50 becomes a car park. It is rapidly heading that way because of the development of the economy, which is a good problem for us to face, but there is a real need to do this. In his response I ask the Minister to address this issue. Perhaps he will remind us in his response of the possible developments on the Phoenix Park tunnel. From what I know of it, it would be limited enough. It would be of value to people who want to link to the north side but not of so much value to those who want to go straight to the city centre. For the well-being of the people of the city and the greater Dublin area, particularly Kildare, and for the well-being of our future economic development this must become a priority, whether through the original proposal of an underground interconnector from Heuston Station to meet the Dundrum Luas and the DART or by some other method. It is absolutely vital that work is done there. I know other areas of the city also require this. We are so far behind other major European cities it would almost make one cry at times, but we must start where we are. I would like to know where this stands in terms of priorities in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

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