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

I share the Deputy's concern about the speed of development of a whole range of different transport solutions and sustainable transport solutions in particular. I hope I am not being controversial and I mean no disrespect to anyone in Galway but Galway is probably where we have our biggest and worst problem with regard to sustainable transport. The city has been very successful in developing but it has an unsustainable transport model that prioritises and promotes transport based on individual cars. I do not blame or fault people who have to use their own cars but it becomes completely unsustainable when a certain level of traffic is reached. That is where we are at in Galway. We need to accelerate some of the sustainable transport solutions in Galway, particularly some of the active travel and BusConnects infrastructure, which would help people use the infrastructure we are discussing, and the development of the railway station at Oranmore, which we mentioned earlier. That integrated approach is required. Park-and-ride facilities have to be part of wider sustainable transport solutions. We should also have bike-and-ride facilities. There is significant potential in providing bike parking, particularly at rail and bus stations. Particularly in light of new electric bikes, there is capacity to rethink how our cities and rural communities work. We need to accelerate development not only of the park-and-ride facilities, but of the active travel and bus travel infrastructure that needs to go with those facilities as part of an overall solution.

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