Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Tens of thousands of people will be nervous tonight that they may, if their houses are in the wrong place, lose their front gardens. This is not a small issue. It is not inconsequential. The Minister should have had the guts to come in and answer a few questions or to set out his thoughts on what is probably one of the most significant transport projects we face. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State but his senior Minister has behaved despicably, to my mind, in walking out of the Chamber just before this question was to be asked.

I am supportive of this project because we need a radical solution to our transport problems in this city. We need what is set out in this plan to get a 50% cut in bus journey times rather than a 50% increase, which will happen if we do nothing. We need a radical approach to cycling. One of the concerns I was going to raise is that while I welcome the 200 km of cycle routes in the plan, I have real questions to ask about the practicality or the wisdom of, for example, taking cyclists out of Rathmines high street. The Minister of State may well be aware that many Kerry people know that area fairly well, having stayed in the flats along the road. The high street is our main cycling thoroughfare. Cycling is the dominant mode of transport there. We must look at this as we go into consultation.

I am concerned about what we did not get today. I would have preferred to see the orbital bus network, which I believe is due only next month, and the inner city new network review, which I understand is also due to be published next month. Perhaps, in hindsight, we should have done these together with what was announced today because there is a concern that by just concentrating on the radial routes we perhaps do not get the mesh effect, the network effect, that might overcome some of the concerns people have about changing to this system that they would lose local bus services. That is just one piece of advice I wanted to give the Minister and I wanted to know his thinking on it. I also wanted to ask him what sort of design office he will put in place. This is a massive, incredibly difficult, complex, vital and time-urgent project. Having worked in the past with the quality bus network project office on some of the design issues, my view is that it would be good to develop in-house resource expertise either in the NTA or in the local authorities. Even if we did so in the local authorities, we would have to do it in such a way that we could replicate this in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, where we will need to do something similar.

Perhaps the reply the Minister of State has been given contains some details on the final question I wanted to ask the Minister. The consultation on this is critical. I wish to give some comfort to people around the city who are terrified they will lose their front gardens. The first example we have seen of this project, the Fairview-to-city-centre route, which is part of the project, has gone through a process. In this case, the original design involved taking out every tree along the Fairview Park section of the route. For cyclists, it represented a very inferior scheme. However, through good consultation and engagement with stakeholders and local people, we have ended up with a good design. We have not had to take out those trees. Perhaps the same will be possible as we get into what is a critical project.

I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State but the Minister should really be here.

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