Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As rightly pointed out by the Minister the Government of 2009 adopted smarter travel as national policy, which includes the four important targets to be achieved by 2020. None of these targets is being met.

It will be impossible to meet our Paris Agreement commitments without immediate reductions in transport emissions. Transport is the only sector in which emissions rates are still higher than in 1990. Investment in light, heavy and metro rail networks in the next decade will go a long way towards helping us to reach our long-term emissions targets. People will be encouraged to leave their cars at home only if they have a top quality public transport network to get them from A to B. It makes economic, environmental and ethical sense. Dublin today is chock-a-block. It is at maximum traffic capacity. The extension of the Luas is welcome, but we need more. We need metro north along the M1 corridor. We need similar plans to get people out of their cars and onto rail lines and high-speed bus routes. Transport is one of the anvils on which the crisis will be resolved.

See this speech in context