John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this motion proposed by my colleague, Deputy Lahart. In the two years since the Minister, Deputy Ross, was appointed, he has seen significant increases in the volume of traffic in the greater Dublin area. That has resulted also in an increase in passengers on all forms of public transport. The Minister will quite rightly say it is a result of economic activity and I acknowledge that. However, as the increase has occurred, journey times have lengthened, congestion has increased and there is an economic cost to the city.

This is not an issue that is new to the Minister. We have raised it before in different ways. What I would like to get from tonight's debate is a change in tack. I know the Minister has a prepared answer from the Department that will probably make reference to what has been done in the last years and will refer to the mid-term capital review, the €2.6 billion or €2.7 billion over the four-year period, the €770 million for BusConnects and so forth. That is all fine but we have heard it before. I ask the Minister to park it for a moment and to engage constructively with us. The long-term projects to which the Minister refers will be needed but we also need a strategy to deal with short-term issues. We cannot condemn communities right across Dublin and the suburbs to increased congestion for the next five and ten years as these major capital projects are delivered.

I want the Minister to listen to a couple of different issues that affect my area. We hear regularly on the radio that traffic is backed up on the N7 as far as Citywest and Rathcoole. It used to be the Red Cow roundabout; it is back that far now. Those living in Rathcoole only have one exit if they are city bound, out at Avoca and across the bridge onto the N7. That whole community is in a bottleneck in the mornings because the congestion from Dublin is that far back.

Clondalkin village is served by public transport but while there is mainline rail and the Luas, there is no joined-up thinking. For the vast majority of people, the bus is the only option because the Luas and the mainline rail are too far away. There is no bus service linking all of those as hubs. We need to look at how that might be done ahead of some of the increased infrastructure to which the Minister refers.

The national development plan was published recently and for many people living in the Lucan area, it was the final nail in the coffin. For years, they were promised there would be a Luas line to Lucan. The line is still on the map but on page 55 of the national development plan as published, it is clearly indicated that it is a post-2027 development. For the next ten years there will be no Luas line servicing the greater Lucan area. While that is bad enough in itself, it impacts on other decisions; the bus rapid transit corridors will not be provided because it is deemed that they would be running in parallel with the Luas. These issues are not going to affect this generation, it is the next generation.

I have indicated to the Minister on several occasions that the number of passengers on public transport has increased. I have asked him again and again how many additional buses we will see in Dublin next year. What was the Minister's reply? That it is a matter for the NTA.

We got in touch with the National Transport Authority and it said it depends on how much money it receives. The final reply, which was the best of all, was when the NTA wrote back to say:

We now have the budget allocation for 2018. It was confirmed to us in recent weeks. Fleet acquisitions for next year are currently under discussion.

The problem I have with this is that the solution is not designed around the demand of the market. We are doing things without the evidence base that should be in place.

When we consider the congestion on the arterial routes approaching Dublin, bus-based park and ride facilities should be available. One year ago the NTA said that it was assessing a number of bus-based park and ride facilities and that it expected to make a determination on whether or not to proceed with them in the coming months. It said that the decision would be contingent upon funding availability and that it had to wait on the outcome of the Government's capital plan review. In the year since there has been little or no progress. There should be a sense of urgency in terms of delivering short-term solutions for the chronic situation that exists in many parts of the city centre, the suburbs and arterial routes. The Minister will know the times that his colleagues are arriving at and leaving the Houses of the Oireachtas in order to miss the congestion in the greater Dublin area. I would like the Minister, in line with the stated objectives of his own Department's plan and the strategy for Dublin, to look at a policy to provide effective short-term solutions as the capital programme and associated projects are built out.

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