Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government states: "... the Government will prioritise plans for the delivery of Metrolink, Luas and other light rail expansion, DART expansion and interconnector ...". I presume the Taoiseach will say the Government is prioritising this but it is certainly some type of prioritisation when the Government is delaying it for a decade. The word "prioritise" loses all meaning in that context. People will scratch their heads and wonder how on earth it makes sense to be talking about a cut of up to 50% in carbon emissions from transport on the one hand and literally the next week to have this cutting of vital public transport investment. However, if one looks at the National Transport Authority's Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area 2022-2042 it begins to make sense in a certain perverse way. In it the height of the ambition is to increase public transport use at morning times by 4%, specifically, by 20% to 23.9%. That is it. That is the height of its ambition. It also wants to reduce car usage by less than 10%. It is incredible but it explains the whole focus on electric cars as opposed to what we need, which is investment in free, green and frequent public transport.

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