Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I take some positives from the Minister's response. The transport strategy is welcome and I look forward to examining it when it is published. I hope it will show the ambition required. I am aware of some of the items which have been funded, including the city centre movement strategy and the DLUTS. There are many good points in them, but most of them have to do with managing traffic. While that is welcome and will help to reduce congestion, I do not believe that, in and of itself, it will be central to ensuring a shift from the car.

A great deal of ambition has been shown by Cork City Council, Cork County Council and Cork Chamber of Commerce in planning for Cork as a significant European city and a sizable balance to Dublin. Those targets will not be reached by accident but through investment. It will ultimately require a serious, substantial effort in areas such as infrastructure, particularly in public transport, so that the density of the population in and around city centre areas in particular and through the area as a whole is intensified. This is crucial to ensure that we get that increase in population. The Minister has given the current Department position and the official answers. Much of that is welcome and positive but, while I am not expecting budgetary commitments or anything like that, I want to hear if the Minister agrees in principle that an investment of this kind for the delivery, in the medium term, of a light rail and bus rapid transit system in Cork is essential and that the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is likely to support something like that in the medium to long term.

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