Shane Ross (Independent)

I thank Senator Paddy Burke for his courtesy. It is fashionable and easy to bellyache about public transport and people will do so whenever they are in Opposition. Ministers for Transport are easy targets and they have a very difficult job. I agree with much of what Senator Ormonde said about the improvements which have taken place in transport in the Dublin area in recent times. Not everything has been entirely welcome. There have been appalling and unforgivable delays. They have tested the customers' patience to such an extent that it is almost at breaking point. Having been a private doubter about Luas I have to say to this Minister, the previous Minister, Deputy Brennan, and the Minister who pioneered it, the then Deputy O'Rourke, now Leader of the House, that Luas is a more than welcome innovation. It is almost revolutionary.

When I bought my first car some years ago I thought I would never travel by public transport again. One of the great advantages of getting one's first car is that one avoided what were the horrors of public transport at the time. I now try to find a way to travel by Luas because it is so convenient, comfortable, stressless, cheap and quiet. I welcome it regardless of the cost, and I say that as someone who often complains about the cost of things.

In terms of public transport, however, it is not possible to say it was too expensive because roads, public transport, trains, buses and routes are fairly permanent and that cannot be measured in terms of a dividend or the cost to industry or individuals. One can have a rough guess at what is being saved or guess, per company, what is being saved going by various shorter routes using different means of transport but the actual amount it benefits the nation is inestimable. We cannot tell what it is and in that sense the Luas is a great innovation because we cannot measure in terms of money its benefit to the country, the traffic or the reduction in numbers it effects.

Also, the improvements in the roads, which have been talked about, are massive, revolutionary and welcome, if slow. Yesterday, I travelled from Dublin Airport to my house in Carrickmines and the joy of being able to travel nearly the whole way on the M50 was something completely new and to be welcomed. I completed in 30 minutes a journey which, in days gone by, would have taken me an hour or an hour and a half. That is a welcome development, something we should applaud and not decry. It is something for which the Government, and all Governments, must take some credit and responsibility. In terms of capital spending, we should say "Well done". Credit is due to Senator O'Rourke in terms of the Luas. The role she played in that project is magnificent, and let us not bellyache too much about the expense incurred and its late arrival because we now have it.

The same applies to the bus corridors, which have been very successful in the area Senator Ormonde touched on. The buses race along the Bray road on a daily basis and are attracting more passengers. The Senator made a good point about whether people are moving between the buses and the Luas, and we do not know the answer to that. Despite the immense improvement made in the Luas, and the welcome intervention by the Minister to link the two Luas lines, I am anxious that Dublin University, which is not my constituency but is somewhere in which I have a great interest, should not have some of its territory taken from it.