Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very annoyed. MetroLink does not serve my constituency. Neither do DART+ west and DART+ south west. The only DART+ project that will serve my constituents is DART+ coastal north, which has been a very long tale. I do not have the time to tell it all, but suffice to say that it has been a decade since the bridges were raised. A little like draining the River Shannon, it gets wheeled out every once in a while, but it never actually seems to happen.

I fully appreciate the Minister of State being here and I thank him for the reply. However, that reply relates to people who live in different areas and not the people I represent. The people I represent in Skerries and Balbriggan are being taken out of the Dublin city commuter zone and will now have to pay more to get in. The Department has not even included the DART+ coastal north project in the reply. That will drive my constituents up the wall, as I am sure the Minister of State will appreciate. While it is brilliant that the metro will come, and I am sure some of my constituents will use it, people will have to travel in their cars or by another form of public transport to get to the metro, which will stop in Swords. That is not in the constituency of Dublin Fingal West. It is in the Minister for Transport's constituency, which might lead people to believe it will be built, unless they are familiar with his record in other areas.

I understand the limitations of the Minister of State's reply, but I would very much appreciate if he would get a comprehensive reply for me from the Minister for Transport. This should not be a reply that tells me why he cannot deal with the matter but a reply that provides an explanation for me and my constituents as to why commuters from the towns of Skerries and Balbriggan will have to pay more to get into town and use the public transport service, while at the same time, as the Minister of State said, improving public transport services and infrastructure is central to improving quality of life, achieving decarbonisation, and is part of the goals that have been set out in the programme the Government. These things do not make sense. If the Government wants people to use public transport, it needs to make it accessible, frequent and affordable. More money is being charged to my constituents to use public transport while at the same time they are being told that they have to play their part in decarbonisation, which they want to do. They are Dubs. They live in Dublin. They want to be in the Dublin city commuter zone.

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