Results 1,461-1,480 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: There is a separate case for such a Minister. To answer the question specifically with regard to the street level, I would argue the key pulling together is by the local authorities. It is not about getting the Department of housing or rural development down to street level because that is not their job. What would they know about the street level? Perhaps we have disempowered local...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I absolutely think it would be helpful. The Acting Chair asked earlier about what was holding us back. Change is difficult, as he said, and it is often contested. Increasingly in Ireland it is contested in the courts. That is increasingly an issue that makes it very difficult to innovate, experiment or deliver things quickly. I will give an example in own constituency but it is an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I agree. Part of the problem we have had over the past five decades is that we have been going in a certain direction and the only assessment that tended to be made was on the average journey-time savings for someone driving for a relatively short section of whatever project was being built - we might save ten minutes on every car journey and multiply that by whatever value was put on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I will flip the first point on great places that people want to visit and turn it the other way. I always argue this about greenways and active travel systems because people argue that greenways are for tourists or leisure and I say no, greenways are for locals. They are for getting to school, the shop or the pub at night. If you do that, tourists will come because they want to meet local...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I would be interested if any of my officials had any view on that. We have to be very scientific in our appraisal of that. Going back to what I said at the start - and this no criticism of anyone over 70 - road safety is our first consideration.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I can understand the benefit that would come from having a wider workforce and so on but I would really bow to scientific assessment and transport experts on that. I would take departmental advice. I do not know if there is any to hand here today but we can come back to the committee on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I attended a function to mark the 20th anniversary of the Luas on Sunday, and the Leas-Chathaoirleach is absolutely right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I remember being at the first one with the Leas-Chathaoirleach - the first carriage. Séamus Brennan deserves great credit, and as I said on Sunday, the fact that he is lying in rest looking out over the Dundrum Luas station is very appropriate. He probably picked that site. He recognised it as one of the projects he was most proud of. The Leas-Chathaoirleach is right. We need to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes. I am being very local but it is just to give an example. What is Donnybrook? Is Donnybrook a distributor road into the city or is it the centre for a community? There are certain examples coming out to me as I see it developing now, which give me hope that it could be a sense of community. Take one very local example. Let us go down to the bottom of Eglinton Road and look at that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I could give a very long answer, but two things come to mind. We need to go back to the future. If we look at a map of Dublin in the 1910s or 1920s, we can see it probably had the most extensive public transport network of any city in the world. It was rail-based by and large, specifically trams. The 11 was a tram, as were the 15 and 14. We all know this. We have shown we can do it....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Practically none. Thus, it is not impossible for us to recreate that Dublin and it would be a better Dublin. The second point goes back to something I was saying earlier. It sounds slightly bizarre, but what would make Dublin work is Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick also working, because we have massive investment coming to Dublin, but if all the development continues to be in Dublin...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: To go back to what I was saying earlier, this must come from the bottom up at local level. We cannot supplant local government in making these decisions. The Leas-Chathaoirleach's area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is an example. We happened to have a meeting last week with some of our active travel teams and we were looking at the pathfinder projects. The likes of the decision in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I apologise for being very local here, but all politics is local and maybe transport more than any other area. To give an example-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I am interested in getting the Leas-Chathaoirleach's sense of it. I am fixated. I am sad, in the sense every time an S2, S4 or S6 goes by I am counting the number of passengers on board, which initially is low. We expect that, but I anticipate it will grow because, as the Leas-Chathaoirleach said, it is transformative. There was never the quality. It used to be that passengers would go...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank Deputy O'Connor for his kind words at the start. Sometimes it feels like you are at your own funeral when you hear nice, kind words said about you. It is pleasant and very much appreciated. I understand the case the Deputy is making for an extension of the rail line to Youghal. Youghal is a spectacular beautiful town but which, maybe, has seen better days. It needs to get back...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Over €1 billion. To be honest, we need to get that project over the line. If we get that over the line and then one starts running ten-minute services from places such as Cobh and Midleton, perhaps people will come back and say we have to extend to Youghal. I would be the first to cheer it on but I cannot give a false promise on it today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I appreciate what the Deputy is saying. I have always reflected on this in regard to taking Cork county as an example. What the Deputy says is true. Some towns are flying and some towns less so. I would argue that Cork county has been highly progressive. It had a good architect, a good planning regime and enhanced and promoted its towns, not only Cork city. Much of that was about the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I will be brief because I am conscious of the time. I absolutely agree with the Deputy. The next government is a manifesto issue, as we talked about earlier. The 10% commitment to active travel is critical and key because we have now set up the systems which are coming through with good-quality designs. We need to pick the ones that can be deliverable and support the councils that are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I tend to agree. I am not anti-car and I do drive.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System: Minister for Transport and Communications (3 Jul 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes, and it is quicker and better for your health.