Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

In defence of the Minister, Deputy Brennan, there is the former CIE chairman, Brian Joyce. He informed Senator O'Rourke in 2000 that the Luas was heading towards the €1 billion mark, so her story does not add up either. There is grave confusion within the Fianna Fáil Party between past and present. Unfortunately, while Fianna Fáil Members argue among themselves, the public is suffering. The Luas system is already a year behind schedule. I remind the Minister of the famous advertisement which advertised the first train for 2003 and every five minutes afterwards. It will be 2004 at the earliest before the Luas is up and running. Even then there is no guarantee that it will run according to plan. We could be talking about a system that can only cater for about 10% of peak time traffic.

It is vital, as proposed in the Labour Party motion, to have one transportation policy unit in charge of Dublin. There are far too many transportation areas in Dublin. It is a case of too many chefs in the kitchen resulting in too little food being cooked.