Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

As somebody who lives in Dublin, I am very aware of the congestion problems. Everybody in the House who travels to Dublin is also aware of them. The current conditions are absolutely unacceptable. We have listened to the Government and its predecessor talking about the various measures to be put in place to relieve the traffic problems in Dublin, but we have seen no improvement.

The Luas project has been the subject of discussion for many years. Other countries have put similar systems in place, but we are still progressing very slowly with this project, which will ultimately do very little to relieve the traffic problems in Dublin. It is costing double what we first thought it would and may end up costing even more. In August 2002 the projected cost was €20 million; now we are talking about €40 million. It is absolutely outrageous that this system is not in place.

The trains in operation at present are totally inadequate. We are trying to encourage people to use public transport, and they do want to, but the service and the facilities on offer cannot cater for all those who wish to use them. Senator Morrissey and I represent the same area in Dublin west, so he will be aware of the problems of which I speak. The area is served by the Connolly-Maynooth train, but, with the exception of Coolmine station, there are no parking facilities available. People have to drive their cars to the train station because there is no feeder bus service. The latter is essential if we are to make adequate use of our train service. People park all over the place. It is a source of great annoyance to residents to have cars parked outside their homes all day long. I ask the Minister of State to travel on that train some morning. Like others, he will be obliged to squeeze on to the train and stand in the aisle.