Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Is cúis áthais dúinn an rún seo a chur os comhair na Dála anocht. The Green Party is tabling this motion because the way that we live and travel today is not sustainable for our families, our future, our quality of life or our planet. Recommendation No. 10 of the Citizens' Assembly was that "92% of the Members recommended that the State should prioritise the expansion of public transport spending over new road infrastructure spending at a ratio of no less than 2-to-1 to facilitate the broader availability and uptake of public transport options with attention to rural areas." The need for serious and substantial investment in public transport infrastructure across the country - making public transport a real option for everyone, rural and urban - was recognised by the Citizen's Assembly as necessary to bring down our transport emissions. Emissions from transport make up 20% of our overall greenhouse gas emissions, having risen by 140% between 1990 and 2016. Public transport infrastructure is vital for our planet and there is no time to lose, yet there has been little to no movement by the Government towards investing in it at the scale necessary.

The Government's expenditure on roads still greatly exceeds the public transport budget. Project Ireland 2040, the vaunted national development plan, is primarily focused on roads. As Deputy Eamon Ryan said, no public transport projects were completed last year and none will be completed this year and next year. Investing in public transport is about saving the planet, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and tackling climate change. It is about more than that, however; it is about restoring our quality of life. Public transport is an active mode of transport. To get to and from public transport, no matter how short the trip, requires activity. Walking and cycling are the most active modes of transport. As Dr. Lorraine D'Arcy and David O'Connor of the Technological University Dublin stated earlier in the audiovisual room, when it comes to transport the focus most of the time is on commuting and commuting data. We do not seem to consider, as we should in designing our cities, towns and villages, that travel should be for health, social interaction and a variety of purposes in addition to just getting from A to B and then back to A again.

Yesterday, research released by motor data company INRIX showed that commuters in Dublin spent a total of 246 hours - ten days and six hours - in their cars in 2018. Only in Bogota and Rome, cities many times the size of Dublin, do commuters spend longer in their cars.

It is a cost to our quality of life as time stuck in traffic costs mothers and fathers time with their children and all people time with their families. It isolates and divides and it creates enormous uncertainty and anxiety around travel times for those trying to get to work, school, college, social events, the shops, their places of worship and community. A major investment in public transport infrastructure across the country does not just change how we travel, it changes how we live as a community.

Public transport can connect communities. It can connect communities with other communities, and it can create stronger bonds within communities. By allowing public transport as a viable option and taking cars off the road we make our air cleaner, we make walking and cycling safer for our children, we reduce the amount of time people spend stuck in traffic in their cars, and we allow them to spend more time in their communities, getting to know their neighbours.

Six out of ten primary school children are driven to school, and the statistics are not much better for second level. According to the CSO, more girls are driving to school than are cycling. It is shocking. No wonder there is a crisis in childhood obesity. More investment in public transport would make them more independent. When we say goodbye to our children in the morning, we can know they have the safe option of travelling to school by bus, train or tram. We should know they have the option to walk or cycle to school if we invest in walking and cycling infrastructure, to make it safe and accessible. For many people in rural Ireland public transport simply is not an option. The infrastructure just is not there. This motion is calling for the Government to invest in rural Ireland and to put that infrastructure in place. The Government must give people the option to take a bus. Why should they have to take the car? They must be given the option of real public transport which brings them where they need to go.

We need to guarantee that every village, town or city is entitled to a certain level of public transport infrastructure based on its population size, and everything is linked into the overall public transport network. This is not a fantasy, this is the way public transport operates in countries which take it seriously, like Switzerland. This motion is calling on the Government to be ambitious for our planet and for our communities. Real investment in public transport will make a radical difference to quality of life for many people right across the country and I urge the Government to support the motion before us tonight.

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