Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

—Luas was to be built by 2001 at a cost of €279 million, then the cost increased to €635 million. Will the Minister of State clarify what is the final projected cost at this stage? We are being told that it will not be ready until 2004. The French put in place a similar system in Montpellier which is up and running while ours is still in the process of being constructed.

Traffic congestion in Dublin alone is costing businesses in the region of €600 million per year. The average journey time in Dublin is 57 minutes; it has increased 25% since the parties in government came to power in 1997. People are wasting their lives stuck in traffic jams when they could be spending it otherwise. The Government failed to plan ahead and distribute the fruits of the economic boom and match it with quick, effective infrastructural projects, which has left us with the disaster we have in the transport system.

The motion refers to changing the bus system, of which Fine Gael is in favour. However, we are nervous when we hear the Government talk about deregulation after the fiasco created by the former Progressive Democrats Minister of State, Bobby Molloy, with the deregulation of the taxi industry overnight, which has now resulted in one in five taxi drivers having a criminal record and people not being safe travelling by taxi. The advice given by the Fianna Fáil Chief Whip in the Dáil to women in Dublin was not to get a taxi.