Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am positive but I reiterate the key point that there is no point doing this consultation if it is not done at the same time that the Minister indicates the budget is there to deliver it. As I said, the problem lies at the heart of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which historically, for many years, have had a flawed economic analysis that always favoured new roads over public transport and cycling infrastructure. If the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Government are serious, let us do the consultation at the same time that we are doing the budget process - I am on the budgetary oversight committee, so I have oversight of this. There needs to be a radical and fundamental shift in the Department's budget allocation for 2018, and not any further into the future, because that is when we need to start making amends. If it does that, we will have a much more serious, productive and real public consultation system because everyone will know the Department is going to lead to real change, not just more of the same talk we have had over the past 20 years.

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