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

It is the stop-start nature of it. The proof of this can be found when we look at what happens when we do not do things that way. If we look at when we built out the motorways programme, which was done in a strategic way, with long-term certainty, money guaranteed and contractors knowing they had two decades of work, we see we were, in international comparative terms, able to deliver relatively lower costs, on time and to high quality. We now need to do the same in the area of public transport. We have created a car-dependent country that in the end will not work. As well as being unsustainable environmentally, it will grid-lock.

The strategic rail review has a critical role to play because it is taking this three-decade approach. If we all agree that we need to make these investments, we will give a signal to Irish Rail and contractors that this work is coming. By having a modular system, with the same sorts of platforms, passing loops and electrification process, we know there will be a multi-annual programme that will make it modular, regular and quicker, thereby reducing the cost. The Deputy is right. The fundamental question for the next Government is whether it will be willing to continue in the direction this Government has started. We have switched to public transport and active travel. The question will be whether the next Government will be willing to give that certainty. If it does not, and we get caught in processes, we will go nowhere, it will be very expensive and it will take years. Political certainty is probably the most important thing to overcome the process obstacle the system tends to cling on to.

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