Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome it as the Minister with responsibility for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which now expects, perhaps with a little more confidence, to be around in 2021.

This budget is setting a record. The Department has secured the largest increase in capital funding of all Departments to 2021 at €7 billion, with more than €200 million for sport and more than €160 million for tourism. These figures are sobering, but they also portray a vision for and confidence in the Ireland of 2021 and beyond. I will point to something that shows great confidence, namely, the figure in the budget for us winning the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid. I hope that the House shares this confidence and affirms the provision, which itself endorses our vision for Ireland over the next seven years.

In the brief time available to me, I will outline a vision for what transport, sport and tourism will look like in those years. I do not expect it to be acknowledged by the Opposition, but the Luas cross-city will open in the next two months. This significant achievement is something that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, refused to abandon even at the worst of times. It will open at great capital cost, but it will be of considerable benefit to the people of Dublin and this country and contribute towards the removal of traffic from our capital city by taking people out of their cars, which forms part of our vision for 2023 and beyond.

On top of that, I recently announced - it was also announced in the budget - BusConnects, which will be a radical change in the way we transport people in the capital city. It will be introduced in the next four years. We will spend €750 million on this commitment to the type of infrastructure that we want for Ireland. It will introduce corridors that will move people around our capital city much faster than before, corridors that will be adjoined by cycling lanes. We will also see a DART expansion thanks to this enlarged budget. In 2021, there will be the commencement of metro north. It is not to be completed - I apologise to the House for this - until 2027, but it will be completed. The project is still being designed.

Cycling will also form part of the bigger vision. We have been criticised by many Deputies for not providing enough money for the switch to cycling that we wish to see. I have allotted €110 million towards cycling and walking over the next four years. The resultant changes will form part of the pattern that will emerge in the transport system, not just in Dublin. Some people called it a "modal shift". I do not like that expression because I do not really understand it. What it means is moving people out of their cars and into public transport, but one can only do that by providing the necessary public transport inside and outside cities. That is what we will be doing, and that is what we are committed to doing. It involves spending the significant amounts of capital that we have been granted in this budget.

We have made renewed commitments to the environment in terms of electric vehicles. These will be essential and will change the face of transport in this country in the coming years. The pace of change has not been as fast as we would have liked, but the incentives that we introduced in terms of benefit-in-kind and others-----

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