Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to support the Deputy on the Ardee bypass, but there are Ardee bypasses all over the country. We need to be truthful with the people and tell them what is being cut. The budget does not represent an increase. The additional €350 million is to keep existing projects going forward, but we can assume that no new projects will start because no money is available. The Minister needs to outline which capital projects are now receiving lower allocations than previously indicated and what the knock-on effects of that will be to us as a nation.

There is nothing new in the budget in terms of public transport. If anything, it appears that the allocation of capital funding and public transport projects are being delayed. At the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts today, we had the benefit of hearing from the National Transport Authority, NTA, which was able to confirm to me that there will be no additional rail capacity at all for a minimum of two full years. As things stand, there is no plan to provide additional budgets on rail routes. Hard-pressed commuters who are being stuffed into carriages will not be facilitated with a comfortable journey to their destination.

While we support the concept of embracing a carbon tax to encourage all of us to change our behaviour, what options do we have when the Government is telling us to use public transport but is not funding it or any additional capacity? It is was clear from the meeting that the Minister is presiding over a public transport system that is already stuffed and will have no capacity for a further two years when, please God, he will be long gone from the Government benches.

Similarly the Minister, in his non-executive role, said everything is a matter for everybody except him. Under Bus Éireann's commercial mandate, it is permitted by the Minister to fleece hard-pressed commuters who have already made the switch from cars to public transport. People living in Dungarvan, County Waterford, who want to get the bus to work in Cork city will pay €9 for an adult return ticket. The bus travels through Youghal and their work colleagues who live there and will travel half of the journey will pay twice the price, that is, €19 for a return ticket. This is the kind of activity the Minister supports while enjoying photocalls. He is much better than I could ever be at them but when it comes to the ground hurling, that is, the business of representing people on a daily basis and using the money that is available to his Department to provide value for money and the services we need, he is failing miserably.

Even were 100% of the budget of €520 million for the maintenance and construction of regional and local roads to go towards maintenance, which is highly unlikely, it falls far short of the Department's estimate of the cost of maintaining them. A Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport analysis shows that about €580 million is needed just to keep roads in an acceptable condition. This does not account for the very considerable backlog of works in all counties that need to be carried out. The latest National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, report on the condition of roads found that 70% had surface or structural difficulties, which is a significant health and safety concern.

On the sports side, there is no doubt that the number of photocalls and medal winning chasing, to which my colleague, Deputy Cowen, referred on budget day, will increase in the year ahead. However, I am afraid that when it comes to supporting sport, the cupboard is bare. He did a nice three-card trick in terms of reducing capital expenditure on sport for the next year and putting that money onto the current expenditure side to fund the photocalls for Euro 2020 and Tokyo 2020. That is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul.

We have heard €9 million has been allocated for greenways and new urban cycling projects. As we are all aware, Fianna Fáil proposed the use of carbon tax revenues to provide infrastructure to help people reduce their carbon emissions, but this money is coming from tourism. What tangible action is the Minister taking to encourage people who can commute by cycling to do so? What tax measures is he considering to try to get people onto ebikes? Other countries which have successfully done this have schemes which write off up to 120% of the cost. We have seen no suggestion of any initiative in that regard.

Earlier this week, Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard stated in a press release that 2020 allocates a total budget of around €114 million for cycling compared with €61 million last year. Will the Minister, please, detail exactly how that increase has been brought about? His Department's press release does not provide details of this funding increase.

We support the diesel rebate scheme but there is concern among hauliers that despite the Minister's stated intentions in his budget speech that there will be full compensation for the haulage industry in the first year, the reality for the industry is that there is no such compensatory measures and the effective rebate rate will be reduced from 7.5 cent per litre to 5.8 cent per litre. We will deal with the Finance Bill next week and I ask the Minister and the Government to outline in detail how the haulage industry is to be supported in the context of the rebate scheme? According to the speech the other day, the industry is assuming a full compensatory write-off for it to be available. How will that be achieved?

We welcome the increase in tourism but the non-executive nature of the Minister, Deputy Ross, in that regard is very evident. The numbers of tourists from the UK are down, with 80% of hoteliers telling us there are fewer visitors from the UK. Research carried out by the Restaurant Association of Ireland found that tourists who come to Ireland are staying for fewer days and spending less money. This is, of course, a concern. The Chinese market comprises the people who spend the most internationally on tourism, a vast sum of €277 billion per year. That market is so important to the Minister that the tourism action plan 2019 to 2021 does not once mention China.

3 o’clock

These are just some examples of the non-executive nature embraced by the Minister with regard to his role. There is nothing in this budget that suggests anything other than that in his role as Minister, this man - this is not a personal attack - continues to reduce the level of tangible input he should have in an executive position on behalf of the people to improve people's lives. In that regard, the transport budget is a failure.

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