Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“notes:— the failure of the Government to bring investment levels in Irish Rail, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann back to pre-recession levels;

— that this failure has contributed to an ongoing crisis in our public transport system, especially in Bus Éireann;

— that systemic under investment in public transport provision is contributing to growing traffic chaos and congestion;

— that between 2008 and 2015, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael led Governments cut subvention to Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) by some 41 per cent;

— that a number of different finance streams are available to the State to both increase subvention levels to CIÉ companies and initiate major public transport infrastructure projects;

— that Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has €100 million in additional funds that could be released immediately to deal with any financial crisis in our public transport networks;

— that the continued reliance on road construction and the facilitating of private (for profit) transport companies is undermining both the provision of a coherent public transport policy and the existing semi-State bodies entrusted to provide this;

— that Dublin and the rest of the country require a radical programme of investment in public transport, in order to make our towns and cities sustainable and liveable and also to meet targets for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and tackle climate change;

— that the National Transport Authority (NTA) has operated to undermine existing semi-State companies and has facilitated private, for profit, operators by, for example, increasing seat capacity of lucrative inter city routes by over 100 per cent;

— that the proposals by the NTA to tender out 10 per cent of Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus routes to private operators will do nothing to increase public transport provision in Dublin or elsewhere; and

— that the NTA have refused to examine the earnings or conditions of workers in private companies and that their policy is resulting in a ‘race to the bottom’ for workers in public transport; and

calls on the Government to:

— immediately commit to bringing subvention levels in all three CIÉ companies to pre-crash levels by year end, and to a fundamental shift in transport policy that prioritises public transport provision in the years ahead;

— instruct the NTA to cease their plans to tender out routes currently operated by CIÉ companies;

— use the €100 million in additional TII funds to ensure all public transport services continue to operate and that planned cuts to routes in Bus Éireann are stopped;

— begin the process of disbanding the NTA and ensure that policies such as tendering of bus routes that rely on neoliberal ideologically driven agendas are abandoned; and

— ensure a new deal for public transport and cycling that will change the face of our towns and cities, by establishing a publically accountable and democratically controlled body that can oversee investment in CIÉ and public transport generally.”

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