Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will take a minute at the start because the likelihood is that this is the last time I will speak in this Chamber after a very long period. I express my sincere thanks to the voters of Dublin North-West who placed their trust in me and voted for me over a period of 32 years. I will say that I am exceptionally grateful to them for doing that, and I have been honoured to represent the people of Dublin North-West throughout those many years. I also put on record my appreciation and thanks to my staff, Jake Ryan, Paul Mulville and Ryan Kelly, and to others through the years who have provided exceptional support to me, and without whose support I would not have been able to do this job. I thank all of them.

I turn to the legislation before us. To a large extent this is a box-ticking exercise. It is yet again a situation where there really is not any scrutiny of the legislation we are required to support or get through this House. I will spend my short time dealing with one particular area where there is a huge underspend, as detailed in the Bill. This year, almost €130 million has been deferred to next year by the Department of Transport. This accounts for approximately 60% of the total deferred surrenders. It is a huge amount of money. Year after year, the Department has one of the highest underspends despite the urgent need to progress public transport projects. The Minister, who along with me represents the northside of Dublin, will be only too aware of the need for investment in public transport and we have waited a very long time.

This situation is completely indefensible. How can we expect to meet our climate goals without a major acceleration of public transport projects? Under successive Governments, one abandoned or delayed public transport project has followed another. We may now have a Government that says all the right things on public transport infrastructure, but we still do not have one capable of delivering those projects. It is 24 years since the Dublin metro was first proposed and we are still at least a decade away from this project being delivered, and that is in a best-case scenario. This project was first proposed in 2000, with a target for delivery of 2010. Had it been delivered it would be turning a profit by now, but at the end of 2024 it still has not even been granted planning. I accept that Transport Infrastructure Ireland also has questions to answer when it comes to this delay. It is not just the Government. TII, after all, arrived at the oral hearing with 200 previously unseen documents, meaning public consultation had to be reopened after the public hearing. The repeated failure to deliver MetroLink has made communities on the northside of Dublin, such as the ones I represent in Dublin North-West, understandably sceptical that this project will ever be delivered. They have been seriously let down time and again. Dublin North-West is the only constituency in the greater Dublin area without any rail service at all, and there are many constituencies, principally on the southside, that have good bus, Luas and DART services. In Dublin North-West we are entirely dependent on buses.

In that regard, the Minister will also be aware of the particular concerns currently in his constituency and mine with regard to the withdrawal of the 11 bus service. Residents in Wadelai, Hillcrest and Glasnevin are to lose a vital service with the removal of the 11 service next month, under what I regard as an ill-judged plan by the NTA. The 19 service is set to replace the 11 service but it will be a far inferior service to the existing one. When the 19 service is introduced, local residents will be required to change buses to continue south of the city and further afield, including a lot of elderly people and those with mobility issues. In Dublin North-West we have approximately twice as many people aged over 65 as the rest of the city. This decision shows no regard for the profile of the local area or its needs. This decision needs to be reversed and, at a minimum, the northside leg of the 11 service must be retained for the next two years, as the southside leg is being retained. If we want people to use public transport more in our city, we should be scaling up services, not cutting back on them. We all agree with the principles underpinning the BusConnects project, but we need to bring communities with us. The only way to create the buy-in needed is to make BusConnects a success. It will only be a success if it meets local needs. The NTA must reverse this decision and begin engaging meaningfully with the local community and its concerns.

On the subject of public transport provision, Dublin North-West has also been repeatedly failed in respect of light rail services. When the Luas was first proposed many years ago it included a line to Ballymun, but regrettably that part of the plan was abandoned. There were to be three lines, including one to Ballymun. The extraordinary justification at the time was that not enough people drove cars in the area and the aim of the Luas was to reduce the number of cars on the road. How discriminatory can you get? Such a narrow criterion for inclusion was desperately shortsighted but unsurprising. This part of north Dublin has been neglected for decades and denied access to good-quality public services and the mobility necessary for full participation in social, cultural and economic life. The justification that MetroLink will provide that connectivity rings pretty hollow locally now, given how long this project has been promised, and yet is still undelivered. I have been involved in the consultation relating to the current iteration of MetroLink and have put out leaflets and information about it locally, but it is the third iteration and consultation that local residents have been involved in. You cannot blame them for being sceptical about this ever being delivered and the inability of successive Governments to think big and deliver large-scale transport projects.

It is welcome that the Finglas Luas has finally been approved by the Cabinet, but its delivery must be prioritised to address years of underinvestment in sustainable, high-capacity transport solutions for our area. I fear that this recent announcement may be little more than a cynical election ploy. I sincerely hope that is not the case and that there is real political will to get this project over the line. However, experience would suggest otherwise. I was clearing out my office and came across some ten-year-old leaflets. The Finglas Luas was promised then and we are still waiting. It is now more than four years since the first public consultation on this project and the delivery date has already been pushed out from 2028 to 2031 and that is at the earliest. Is it any wonder people have lost faith in the State's ability to deliver these major public transport projects?

It must also be said that the planned route for the Finglas Luas has one glaring omission. There is an opportunity to interchange with the proposed MetroLink route. Instead of continuing the Finglas Luas to Ballymun where the MetroLink is set to stop, the current proposal terminates at Charlestown. That does not make any sense at all. Why is the scope of the project so limited? Linking the Luas and the metro at Ballymun would provide unparalleled connectivity with the airport, not only for Finglas, but the greater Dublin area. Why is it that the north side of Dublin is only getting an additional four stops? One only has to look at the length of the existing green line on the south side to see there is a clear imbalance. There is an urgent need to address the poor public transport provision on the north side of Dublin. That is why the Department of Transport's repeated underspends must be called out. Not only should these important projects be viewed as a long-term public good, they are also critical to our transition to a carbon neutral society. They have the ability to be transformative socially, environmentally and economically, but they have to be more than plans. They have to be realised. The next government must show some ambition and prioritise delivery of these essential public transport projects, because what has been missing is not a commitment to these projects, but a commitment to actually delivering them. We have not seen the political will to do that to date unfortunately.

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