John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Jack Chambers and Darragh O'Brien. I have brought the increased traffic congestion we are facing daily to the Minister's attention by means of Topical Issue debates and numerous parliamentary questions. This issue is particularly urgent in the western part of Dublin. It does not just affect economic development and activity; it also impacts on our future housing needs. We have a strategic development zone that is half built at Adamstown, and a second one in planning at Clonburris. Transport infrastructure is delivered not only to ease the congestion of today but to provide the growth we need for the coming years. The Minister is well aware that a very significant rate of increase is predicted for the population of the greater Dublin area over the next couple of decades. We must plan, forecast and build our infrastructure to deal with that longer term issue.

In that regard, I have some concerns. When I compare the projected figures that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII uses those used by South Dublin County Council, there are some divergences. If they cannot agree now on projected growth, the delivery of transport in the future may not meet requirements. While TII reckons that the population in South Dublin County Council's administrative area will grow by 10% by 2030, South Dublin County Council reckons it will grow by 19%. In terms of jobs, TII suggests a 20% increase while South Dublin County Council is looking at something like 39%. Those variances matter. The transport we plan has to be future-proofed. The traffic on the M50 between the junctions with the N4 and the N7 is now at the level predicted for 2023; hence the urgency of the problem. This is not coming down the tracks at us; we are facing and meeting the problem today.

I have asked the Minister many questions and he has said he would make a submission which, at this point, he has made, on the public transport review. I am very critical of one point. I have asked him time and again to conduct a public transport policy review in advance of the mid-term capital review. He has answered time and again that it is coming up. One of his more recent replies on the matter stated that the submission deadline for the mid-term review of the capital plan did not allow for the completion of the significant body of work and consultation required to undertake a comprehensive review of public transport policy. The reason it did not is that the Minister did not start the review in time. I am concerned that the capital review that is going on currently will not have the evidence that a public transport policy review would have provided. I am disappointed in that regard, and the blame lies fully at the Minister's door. Matters are now out of date, in the sense that we will do a public transport policy review with no option and no additional funding in the future.

My colleagues have mentioned a number of issues. We talked about Metro north. Metro west has been taken off the map. It was an orbital route for which South Dublin County Council had made significant provision through land banking and so forth. The greater Dublin transport plan 2016-35 excludes the possibility completely until after 2035. I acknowledge that the plan was made when funding was not available. However, it did not look forward to the needs of a growing capital city. An orbital route to link up Tallaght, Clondalkin, Lucan, Blanchardstown and on out to the Metro north route is simply gone with no alternative. People from the western part of the city feel strongly that we need orbital routes. I welcome the acknowledgement in the greater Dublin transport plan that there will be an extension of the Luas line to Lucan. Again, the problem is that it is an immediate issue yet there is no prospect of funding until sometime after 2021. That certainly is a concern.

I also want to talk about buses. The Minister has stated on numerous occasions that a bus-based solution will be used to deal with the issue in the short term. I have asked him how many buses we will get and he has usually referred me to the National Transport Authority, NTA. I find it contradictory that although he is the Minister responsible, the NTA is going to tell us how many buses. Surely to God, in advance of the budget, the additional capacity should have been determined and that should have been the objective of the budget negotiations. On budget day, the Minister announced that there would be 110 additional buses. It took me months to find out from the NTA how many of those were replacements and how many were additional; it turned out 20 were additional. The Minister has talked about the role Dublin Bus will play in the coming years. I have asked him in a series of written questions how many additional buses there will be. What is the demand for additional buses to meet public transport needs in the greater Dublin area? The Minister has not answered. He has said it will depend on what is available. That is not dealing with transport. It is saying that whatever money the Minister gets on budget day is what will deliver buses. That is not how to do it. The right way is to calculate the demand and look for the allocation to meet it. If that is not done, we will fall behind time and again.

I asked about park and ride facilities for traffic coming in to Dublin from west of the M50, perhaps on the N7 towards Rathcoole or the N4 towards the Spa Hotel. The Minister, of course, passed me back to the National Transport Authority. It responded that it is assessing a number of bus-based park and ride locations and expects to make a determination on whether to proceed with them in the coming months. However, it also stated that the delivery of those facilities will also be contingent on funding being available and that the NTA awaits the outcome of the Government's capital plan review. That is backwards. Those facilities should have been the subject of a specific submission, rather than waiting to see what comes from the capital plan. Every reply I get is like this. The detail needed to meet current demand is not being given.

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