Dáil debates

Wednesday, 17 April 2019

Public Transport: Motion [Private Members]

 

4:40 pm

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann:” and substitute the following:“notes:

— the ambition of Project Ireland 2040 in, inter alia, supporting compact growth, enhanced regional accessibility, strengthened rural economies and communities, sustainable mobility and the transition to a low carbon economy;

— the integral role of sustainable mobility in both urban and rural areas in supporting that ambition;

— the more strategic and long-term approach toward public transport planning which has evolved in recent years due to improved legislative and policy frameworks;

— the significantly enhanced levels of investment planned in sustainable mobility over the next ten years and the 29 per cent increase in investment between 2017 and 2019 in the major public transport capital investment programmes;

— that the levels of funding now provided toward the maintenance and renewal of the heavy rail network mean it is now funded at the ‘steady state’ level;

— the on-going development of a number of important policies and strategies, including the forthcoming All of Government Plan on Climate Disruption, the draft Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy, the recently commenced Limerick – Shannon

Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy, the impending Waterford Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy and the review of the Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area which is scheduled to commence in 2020; and

— that investment levels will increase further in future years, within overall budgetary parameters, to support the implementation of these finalised policies and strategies; and

calls on the Government to:

— prioritise the implementation of those published projects and programmes as contained within Project Ireland 2040; and

— continue to examine, within the statutory, policy and budgetary frameworks as now established, the potential of other projects and programmes to contribute further toward the continual development of improved public transport networks and services.

My countermotion is short and to the point. First, it seeks to prioritise the implementation of the public transport projects as published in Project Ireland 2040. Second, it calls on the Government to continue examining the potential of other projects which might further improve our public transport system. There should not be a single Deputy in this House who disagrees with either of those statements.

I am surprised that the motion, as put forward by the Green Party, as well as the amendments put forward by Fianna Fáil, fail to explicitly set out wholehearted support for the public transport projects which are detailed within Project Ireland 2040. These projects will transform public transport across the country, benefit hundreds of millions of passenger journeys each year and play an important part in meeting our climate action challenge. I fully support the transformative change this Government is funding across our public transport system. This change will develop segregated bus lanes and dedicated cycle lanes and tracks in all our major cities. Everyone in this House should support that. It will roll out massively expanded commuter rail services across counties Dublin, Kildare, Louth and Wicklow. Everyone in this House should support that. It will deliver a new metro service running from north to south across Dublin and integrating with that expanded commuter rail service at key points. Everyone in this House should support that. We are now able to say that the heavy rail network is funded at the steady state level needed to improve the passengers’ journey experience in both urban and rural areas. Everyone in this House should support that.

I have said before we need to move away from transport project by press release and move forward with proper, long-term and strategic planning of what our transport requirements are and how best to meet them in the short, medium and long terms. We need proper analysis to support well developed policies and strategies which is based on facts not soundbites. I would note that the Swiss Canton of Zurich, as referenced in the Green Party motion, has a population density of over 800 people per square kilometre as compared to Ireland’s 70 and that would acknowledge that the statement “underinvestment in the rail network is continuing” is simply untrue. It would reveal the vast majority of expenditure on roads relates to maintenance and renewal of the existing road network, a network of vital importance for our bus services, particularly in our rural areas where we have been increasing bus services through both public service obligation and LocalLink. It would conclude there already exists a transport authority in the greater Dublin area as called for in the Fianna Fáil amendments.

Over the last decade or so, successive Governments have sought to move towards a more evidence-based approach towards transport planning which is the right approach. In the greater Dublin area, we now have a specific, statutory, long-term approach toward strategic transport planning. The National Transport Authority, NTA, is required by law to develop a 20-year transport strategy. It is required by law to consult widely in the development of that strategy before it is submitted for ministerial approval and to review that strategy every six years to ensure it remains valid or to amend it if required. Importantly, it is also a requirement of law that all relevant land-use planning strategies in the greater Dublin area are consistent with the transport strategy. This is a statutory framework that was long sought and hard fought which represents international best practice but it is a framework that I am afraid this Green Party motion seeks to up-end. I have no problem with next year’s review of the greater Dublin area transport strategy looking at issues such as the Navan rail line, expanded metro or the DART interconnector. In fact, I encourage the Green Party and Fianna Fáil to put forward their analysis supporting the development of any or all of those projects as part of that review. However, I do have an issue with undermining the existing statutory framework, a framework whose very introduction was championed by many as the way forward in ensuring proper and sustainable transport planning.

This plan-led approach towards transport planning is something we are seeking to replicate across the country. That is why the NTA has already worked with the local authorities in Galway in developing the Galway transport strategy and Exchequer funding to support its implementation is available. It is why the NTA is working with local authorities in Cork, Limerick and Waterford to develop metropolitan area transport strategies in each of those cities which will all provide a 20-year horizon to improving public transport in each city.

Each of these transport strategies will provide the evidence base to plan for the future and ensure that we have an appropriate strategic backdrop to the significantly increased levels of funding we have available. At a policy level, we are looking to move forward with reviewing our existing public transport policy. It has been ten years since the publication of Smarter Trave - A Sustainable Transport Future. In those ten years, a lot has changed. It was a policy published just as the country entered a period of economic and financial crisis. A period which meant that successive Governments were not in a position to invest as we all would have liked to. Obviously, that meant some transport projects were not implemented as originally intended ten years ago. However, important progress has been made in areas and that should be recognised as well. Of course, it is always a good idea to look at policy frameworks and refresh them in light of changed circumstances and the passage of time, therefore in coming months I will launch a public consultation on our public and sustainable transport policy. The purpose of this consultation will be to set out what has happened in the last ten years, what has not happened and to seek people’s ideas and views as to what should happen. I look forward to hearing those ideas and views and engaging with Deputies who have a great deal of experience in the last ten years and longer, during that process as we look to shape our future public transport policy.

We are looking to improve things now and improvements are visible on the ground. They are visible in the revamped bus network in Waterford city with an Exchequer funded new fleet and Exchequer funded expanded services.

They are also visible in the expanded PSO bus fleets across the rest of the country and the ongoing steady-state replacement of older, dirtier buses with newer, greener and cleaner ones. They are visible in the bus trials under way in both Dublin and Cork, as we look to see what technology works best for our urban PSO bus fleets when we say goodbye to buying diesel-only buses from this year. They are visible in the ten-minute DART and expanded off-peak services across the GDA rail network. They are visible in the increased Local Link rural services with the introduction of new regular commuter services, improvements to demand responsive services and the piloting of new evening services. They are visible in the increased funding being made available to support improvements in accessibility across bus and rail, such as the new single-deck buses for mid-range regional PSO routes which will enter service this year. They are visible in the increased levels of funding available to support cycling infrastructure and the number of major cycling projects under construction or due to start this year. Improvements are happening on the ground and those improvements are bearing fruit, as can be seen by the increasing numbers of people using sustainable transport options.

We need more, and that is why I reiterate that Government's priority is to deliver upon the ambition of Project Ireland 2040 and see through the implementation of the public transport mega projects - BusConnects, MetroLink and DART expansion. We simply cannot debate public transport, or climate action responses in the public transport sector, without being clear about our support for these projects.

Of course, I recognise that we cannot merely build those three projects and rest on our laurels. We need to continually examine what our transport requirements are and how best to meet them, but that examination must respect the existing statutory and policy frameworks. In the GDA, the review of the transport strategy will allow for other options to be considered. In Cork, Limerick and Waterford, the development of the transport strategies for each will look into their transport needs over the next 20 years.

At a policy level, our review of public transport policy will similarly look to the future to see what our objectives should be. All that work will allow us feed into the mid-term review of the NDP in 2022, which means we can appropriately reflect any additional projects and programmes in the budgetary framework.

That is the core of my countermotion before the House, which calls on Government to deliver on what we have said we would do and deliver these transformative projects which will benefit hundreds of millions of passenger journeys each year, and to keep our minds open as to what future projects and programmes we might need to consider. If Deputies believe in improving public transport, I see no grounds to disagree. I, therefore, commend the Government's countermotion to the House.

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