Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I would like to support several colleagues on the subject of a transport debate and would recommend having it in two parts, namely, national transport and transport in the greater Dublin area. We should express appreciation for the amount of investment that is coming on stream. This year we had the two Luas lines, the extension to the M50, which is opening today, the opening of the Monasterevin bypass on Monday, the Cashel bypass, the re-opening of the Tipperary-Waterford line with a viaduct and so on. Much progress has been made and there will be more.

I am not over-critical about the fact that Luas lines were not joined up at the first stage. The basic lines are now in place and are extremely successful. I was on one of the lines no later than yesterday and there is great demand for them. The point is that once the basics are in place they can be added to and extended and that is what we should be doing.