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

That is what I read in it. I wish the Minister was here in the same way that the engineers and planners stayed at the meetings.

I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor, but the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport should be here to do exactly what he expects his engineers and planners to do at those public meetings. The fact that he is not here speaks volumes about his lack of engagement on the issue.

Another big problem we have is that we have yet to see the next tier, which is the key element in this critical plan. I refer to the infrastructural element in terms of what will happen on the street. My fear is that it might be a roads engineer approach rather than an urban planning approach, whereby we might get the kind of bus priority we need through the use of bus gates, traffic light sequencing and very clever design of the road network rather than the mere addition of lanes on every occasion.

We need to address radically our public transport system and our cycling infrastructure in this city as a fundamental matter, and this project, which has been many years in the making, is the way we will have to do it. There are other things we need to do on top of it, but throwing it out and starting again would not be the right approach. We need to get it right, ensure we do not leave anyone behind and ensure there are more winners than losers. We need to do this collectively and support and work with our planners and engineers to make it happen but we cannot go back to the status quo. The status quois gridlock. This city is grinding to a halt. We must make it a cycling city and a bus city, and that change needs to happen now. It cannot wait any more years.

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