Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question, which is very important, particularly in view of the mid-term capital review and the ten year capital plan. The Deputy is aware that following the completion of the mid-term review of the capital plan, my Department secured the largest increase in capital funding of all Departments out to 2021 and the end of the current capital plan.

Total capital funding over the next four years will now be €7 billion for transport, €200 million for sport and €169 million for tourism, and those funding levels represent an increase of €1.2 billion, or 20%. This allows for a significant acceleration of previous plans and makes a great number of projects possible across the country.

In public transport, the priorities are to address congestion and the emerging capacity constraints in our public transport system across our cities. The additional funding secured will allow for the roll-out of projects such as BusConnects, which will overhaul and improve our bus infrastructure; the city centre rail re-signalling project, which will improve speeds on mainline rail in the greater Dublin area; a new central traffic control centre for the national rail network; infrastructure maintenance across the national rail network; additional Luas capacity with additional trams and longer trams on the Luas network; and continued planning and design for the new metro north.

Our roads development programme will see a total of €2.4 billion invested over the next four years. The bulk of the expenditure in the programme will be directed towards road maintenance and renewal and meeting contractual commitments under the road public private partnership programme. As regards regional and local roads, there will be a significant number of additional road upgrade schemes aimed at addressing safety, employment generation and support and urban regeneration to be advanced.

The improved funding levels will also allow for greater investment in cycling and walking routes in our main cities. The threefold increase in funding I secured will allow for planning and design work with commencement of an intensive construction programme in 2019.

In terms of climate change, I am setting aside €35 million over the next four years to back new ideas that will help decarbonise the transport sector, including pilot initiatives for low emission technologies. As part of a package of measures and incentives to accelerate the take-up of electric vehicles, I have secured funding for the National Transport Authority to allow it to introduce an electric vehicle taxi grant

In the area of tourism, I was pleased to announce a €30 million increase in funding available to support greenways development, while an additional €2 million is being allocated to promote digital investment in tourism marketing, which is important in the context of Brexit and the decline in visitors from Britain.

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