Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

This is a critical issue because the capital city is obviously completely congested at key times. It was interesting that the Taoiseach got caught in a traffic jam a couple of weeks back and spoke about it taking 70 minutes from Castleknock into the city centre. God love the poor souls who live beyond Castleknock because the Taoiseach's experience would not have been as severe as theirs. It is interesting what happens when people who are high profile and in government have problems. John Bruton experienced a traffic jam some years back and, all of a sudden, an operation was introduced to clear traffic.

Dublin is not only facing major traffic congestion that impacts on the quality of people's lives but it also has a huge environmental impact, with the car still the dominant mode of transport. Some 43% of Dublin's commuters use the car to get to work, school or college, which is a huge figure. The limitations of the transport system are down to one reason only, and that is the ongoing lack of public investment in public transport. The motion mentions how Dublin is the 15th most congested city in the world yet there was a cut of €58 million in public subvention of public transport to the CIÉ group of companies since 2010, so it involves this Government, the previous Government and the Government before that. There is also the wider context of the lack of longer-term planning because economic development is driven by profits rather than by what is needed by regions and communities. Census 2016 showed that some 43% of Dublin commuters said they use the car. In Dublin West, to give an example of a suburb the Taoiseach and I both represent, the figure is even higher at 51%, so more than half the people are using cars to get to where they need to get to. This is simply unsustainable.

I want to mention some of the problems faced by commuters in Dublin West. Yes, there has been a recovery and an improvement in economic fortunes in the sense that factories and pharmaceutical companies are opening up but there has not been any attempt to increase public transport to go with those openings and the area has no Luas or metro, despite it being the fastest growing area of population in western Europe in the last 15 years. One constituent who commutes in and out of town each day said that the service on the 39 bus route is inadequate and that the wait for a 39 bus can be up to an hour on most weekday evenings. The 39A stops approximately a half an hour walk from the area where this person lives so the person now has to think about getting up at 6 a.m. in order to be able to get to work without any hassle.

We have had representations from the Hansfield secondary school parents association. Many of the students have to commute from different parts of the constituency and beyond, particularly as it is an Educate Together school and people want school diversity. They made the point that the starting time of the school is 8.50 a.m. but the bus service does not correlate with when the school starts or ends, and there is no match or tie-in whatsoever. We all know the lack of school transport adds significantly to congestion and when the schools are off, we can see the difference. Even in parts of the US, where neoliberalism is at its height, there are school transport systems, but in this county it is seen as unnecessary. There is a particular problem in suburban areas where students and children are criss-crossing each other, with some going to one school and some to another because of the lack of school places.

There are frustrations with Dublin Bus due to the lack of investment. As I said, this is a busy urban area with many young people who need to get to work and college. The 39, 38 and 38A are the three bus routes that provide the main public service from Dublin West into the city centre. The common experience cited by users is that they wait for a bus and then two or three buses may arrive full because they do not have the capacity to deal with the demand caused by the population. People are left waiting for the next bus an hour later, and this is during the day, not at unusual times at night. We need a massive expansion of the bus service. We need public investment to increase the number of buses and their frequency, and we need to employ more drivers.

Obviously, cycling has increased massively in popularity in recent years and this has been reflected in Dublin West.

There could be a great expansion in cycling routes which could link in with the transport system.

There is a problem with the quality of trains. Dublin West has a train line that serves 6% of people commuting daily. Today, the Taoiseach put out a press release for constituents regarding a Luas service on the train lines. Commuters need to live very near the line to access it. Most people rely wholly on buses. Among those who do use the train, there are often complaints. People write to me saying that the train stations are extremely cold, and then when commuters manage to get on the train, they are extremely overcrowded and they cannot get seats. This is because there has not been enough investment. One commuter, originally from France and now living in my constituency, wrote asking why we cannot have double decker trains, for example. He contrasted the service that he had experienced in France with what he experiences in Ireland.

When companies set up in suburban areas of cities, is there any demand that they contribute towards extra public transport? One noticeable feature of the industrial areas in Dublin West, and I am sure it is the same in many other places, is that most of the people who work there drive in and out of the constituency daily. They do not live there. It adds significantly to the transport problems and congestion which people face. It is often assumed that when a Minister comes from a constituency, it enjoys a huge upgrade in services. In Dublin West, we had the Minister of Finance, the late Deputy Brian Lenihan, then the Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton and now we have the Taoiseach. We have not had an extra scrap of public transport in Dublin West and all the testimonies from people about waiting for buses and overcrowded trains testify to that. We need massive investment in public transport. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a commitment in this Government to provide it, and there has been no empathy with Irish Rail or Dublin Bus workers recently. That is the only way that we can get people from A to B and make a positive impact on the environment and on climate change.

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