Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

If that is the best that is planned, we have a serious problem. There may have been more investment in Dublin Bus but fares are increasing and that is making the public transport network less attractive for users. Iarnród Éireann has changed its schedule, cutting out key routes at key times in areas such as north County Dublin which, again, forces people out of the trains and back into their cars. Congestion is back to the boom time levels of 2008. According to the EPA, we will not only fail to meet our targets but will massively overshoot them. What we have had is a huge number of plans but very little substance. Transport emissions are projected to increase by 20% over the period 2020 to 2035. The only two things in the Government's plan to deal with this are electric cars and the move to biomass and biofuel. Let us look at electric cars briefly. The Minister has told us that he will get 50,000 of these on the road by 2020. It is his key plank. There are 1,000 on the road now on the eve of 2016. As such, he tells us that there will be a fiftyfold increase magically overnight. This is not a minor part of his plan, it is actually promoted as the key part along with biofuel. He is nowhere near delivering on either of them.

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