Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Seamus Healy. I do not support the Fianna Fáil Party for the simple reason that the Green Party believes we must substantially increase funding for public transport and investment in cycling and walking, which would not be possible in the context of an increase in the roads budget of €4.25 billion for the next four years. Investment in public transport is only a fraction of this amount.

Investing all our money in roads, as we are doing again, is the wrong strategy in terms of climate emissions and building communities. The system and economy will simply not work and we will have gridlock. I agree with the point made on radio this morning by DCU Professor Edgar Morgenroth who was behind the national planning framework when he stated the framework had been thrown away and we were pursuing the same old approach of building more and more roads. This will not develop urban centres or reduce commuting and will cause further gridlock. We tried it before and it will not work this time either.

I remember, while campaigning on transport about 25 years ago, the findings of one of the best engineers in the country when he examined what was being done in Galway. He stated the ringroads and roundabouts being built in the city at the time would not work and it was madness to believe we could move large numbers of people from one side of Galway to the other by road. He has been proved right.

In 1999, the Dublin platform for change looked at proper modelling of transport. I remember as if it was yesterday that the clear message from the best modellers and engineers was that the public transport infrastructure, including a metro and DART interconnector, had to be built first. What did we do? We first widened the M50 and built the motorway network leading to Dublin. As a result, the capital is starting to grid-lock and is already crippled by our excessive dependence on roads and the absence of public transport.

This is not a rural versus urban issue because rural areas also need public transport. A large chunk of the €4.25 billion in roads funding should be allocated for rural bus services and we must invest in rural towns to stop the sprawl. We must stop the incredibly expensive and unsustainable approach of building housing everywhere and having everyone travelling by car. The end point is that this simply does not work but it is the direction in which we are moving again.

It is incredibly frustrating that the Minister does not appear to understand the basic lessons we should have learned from the past 30 or 40 years. Deputies have spoken about road conditions. The Minister should go down to College Green and see what he has done on the ground in terms of safety. Potholes are a major concern in rural areas but they are also a concern in urban areas. It is clear the Government does not care about cyclists, pedestrians and bus users. All the Minister does is open up motorways in an open top, dressed up car and tell us how great everything is. This approach will not work because it is out of date. We need a change in approach to one that will benefit citizens. I did not hear the Minister say anything on that issue. I will not support the Fianna Fáil motion because the party does not appear to have learned that lesson either.

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