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

I agree with the Deputy.

One of the key investments we need to make is in the protection and renewal of existing assets. As they Deputy will be aware, if we let a road go it costs far more to bring it back when there is structural damage, potholes and so on. It is far better to invest now in maintaining the road surface, the network and the drains. That saves money in the long run. We must ensure that is protected, which it has been in recent budgets.

The reality is that there are so many different asks, as we heard earlier, particularly in respect of new services connecting Ireland, including new rail services. We still have a significant shift to make. We are heading, as a Government, towards a ratio of 2:1 expenditure on public transport compared to roads. We are not anywhere near that yet. The significant increases in transport spending to come are going to be on public transport to make sure that we have options. Deputies Tóibín, O'Rourke and others said earlier that critical public transport projects need funding. Any underspend that we have this year is going to be used to invest in some of those projects for rail and other solutions that will give us the capacity we need to also help the roads by taking some of that traffic off them. Deputy Tóibín mentioned that it took him two hours to get in this morning. The solution to that is investing in public transport to help those who have to be on the roads.

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