James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I represent north Kildare, which along with the rest of Kildare and counties Louth, Wicklow and Meath, is said to be the commuter belt. Someone said that Naas in Kildare is the buckle on that belt. It is pretty much the centre of the commuter belt with huge numbers from the county travelling to Dublin daily for work and most of the country passing through the N4 and N7 to get to Dublin so it is very much steeped in commuting and private and public transport. It is estimated that between 60,000 to 80,000 vehicles travel the N7 daily along with commuters coming in from Sallins, Celbridge, Leixlip, Maynooth and Kilcock train stations and those travelling on buses from Prosperous, Clane and Naas along with private transport along the N4 and N7.

As has been already said, what is lacking is a big picture - a vision. We do not have a transport policy, as Deputy Browne noted. A 30-year transport strategy was published as the Government took office. There was barely a hint in it of any kind of connectivity in respect of projects like the interconnector, metro north, metro west or the outer orbital route for the M50. There is no joining of the dots. We have multiple routes. If people want to get into the city centre and back out again, they can do it - albeit very tortuously and slowly - making their way through traffic jams. If they need to go from A to B and up to C, it is far more difficult. We need to put in place a basic transport infrastructure of the kind that every other capital city of its type in the world has. We are lacking in it. The Fianna Fáil plan was mentioned earlier. This plan, which was called Transport 21, was actually a fine plan. If we could revisit it now, we would be well served. I urge the Minister to take this motion seriously and I commend my colleague for tabling it.

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