Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

No, I would never do that but I am ambitious. I would like to think that the electorate believes I am a good, ambitious, young politician who is setting out some positions that should be developed, particularly for a population that is growing, especially in the Dublin region. I welcome the support I have received in this House in that regard.

Time does not allow me to go into detail on the range of transport investments that are currently being undertaken but there are a few areas I believe I should mention. One of the most significant areas of transport investment is national roads. One need only refer to the fact that Exchequer investment in national roads is at an all-time high of €7.8 billion for the period 1997-2005; and over €1.4 billion in 2005. The investment framework provides for a further investment of €7.7 billion over the period 2006-09. This scale of investment is needed to maintain the pace and momentum of the programme built up over the past few years.

Excellent progress has been made. Nothing less than a major transformation of the national road network is under way. The beneficial impact of the major increase in investment is evident throughout the country in the elimination of the major traffic bottlenecks leading to shorter journey times, greater time certainty and a safer road network. The high-quality network we are putting in place is contributing significantly to supporting our national competitiveness, job creation and more balanced regional development. The past few months have seen a number of major projects opened to traffic on time and within budget. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government also recently announced the 2005 allocation of almost €500 million for non-national roads. This is continuing evidence of this Government's commitment to upgrading regional and local roads which are the backbone of the rural transport network.

As regards rail, the strategic rail review provides us with a policy framework to assist in making important decisions for the future of rail. It is the first major report in the history of the State to recommend the rebuilding of the railways. There is now clear evidence of considerable investment being made in rail. Over the past four years, more than €1 billion has been spent on the railways, both on infrastructure and new rolling stock, after decades of underinvestment. We have been playing "catch-up" and significant investment in the network and in passenger services has occurred. All of the investment has been put into upgrading existing lines and more than half of the expenditure on infrastructure over the past five years has been spent on keeping the network safe.

This investment will continue with major projects currently being implemented under the National Development Plan 2000 to 2006 and the additional DTO strategy. Newer projects will be funded under a rolling five-year multi-annual framework, resulting in continuous improvements in our rail services. We have reached a situation now where almost all track on the main lines is new and continuously welded. Over 400 miles of tracks have been renewed over the past six years across the regions. A new network-wide signalling system is being installed and work is well advanced on this project.

Now that substantial progress has been made on renewing the infrastructure, we are turning our attention to upgrading services. A major programme of rolling stock acquisition is being undertaken by Irish Rail. Some 67 carriages are due to start delivery later this year for the Cork line alone. The Minister for Transport recently announced the placing of a contract for 120 regional railcars costing in the region of €460 million, representing a commitment to the railway itself and the development of services to the regions. We are working toward hourly frequencies on the Dublin to Cork line, two-hour frequencies on other intercity lines and service improvements on branch lines as this rolling stock comes on stream.

Now that the "catch-up" process is almost complete, I am aware that Irish Rail is looking at improving other regional rail services. In this regard, I wish to refer to one particular and significant project, namely, the Mallow-Cork-Midleton commuter rail system. This is a highly significant example of central government responding positively to strategic planning at local level. In this regard there was an announcement of a €90 million investment in the Mallow-Cork-Midleton commuter rail system. This rail announcement follows through on the Cork area strategic plan, CASP, and shows investment in critical infrastructure being prioritised to encourage new and innovative development patterns. This commuter rail strategy was developed in Cork in line with a land use development strategy. The plan recognises and highlights the need for supporting and complementing land use strategies to these proposed public transport developments. A subsequent feasibility study endorsed the viability of the proposals, as did the strategic rail review. This endorsement was grounded substantially in the fact that the rail development would only proceed on the basis that the CASP land use strategy for the rail corridors would also go ahead. Both Cork City Council and Cork County Council are working closely with my Department. It is hoped the project will be completed by 2007.

One other rail project has also been given a lot of attention in the recent past. I refer to the western rail corridor. As Senators will be aware, the previous Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, appointed a working group to carry out an examination of the proposal to reopen the western rail corridor. The track on the Limerick-Ennis section has already been largely renewed, but significant infrastructural investment will be needed to bring the rest of the line up to passenger standard.

Although reinstatement of the corridor was considered in the course of the 2003 strategic rail review, the western rail corridor was not included in the review's recommended investment strategy, primarily because it was not supported by complementary land use and settlement strategies. The strategies are necessary for all major transport projects because without them, there may not be the required level of potential travel demand to justify the required investment.

The review did, however, identify the western rail corridor as fitting particularly well with the aims of the national spatial strategy, especially as regards balanced regional development. As a result, the Minister identified the need for the proposal to be carefully evaluated and its potential to be examined from all relevant perspectives. In establishing the working group, the Minister was anxious to provide every opportunity for the case to be made for the proposal. When launching the group, Deputy Brennan made the point that new railway proposals can only be justified on sound economic, social and commercial grounds that accord with public expenditure guidelines on capital expenditure and provide value for money. Such proposals must also be underpinned by the relevant planning authorities adopting and implementing appropriate and complementary land use, settlement and local economic strategies. The working group and its five sub-groups have been considering the question of the feasibility of the western rail corridor since June last year and I understand that they may now be nearing the end of their deliberations. I would be happy to give that information to the House as soon as it is available. We will address the group's conclusions in the ten-year transport investment framework, to which I referred earlier.

Not all our transport solutions are rail-based. Some very good work is taking place to improve public transport through bus priority schemes. As a Dublin-based public representative, I should refer to the success of some of the light rail projects, in particular, the Luas project. Both the green and red lines have been enormously successful. They have assisted in transforming people's mindset on public transport in producing genuine time savings and guaranteed journey times. We are now exploring extensions of the Luas system. I am pleased to indicate that moneys have been allocated for the commencement of a new rail station at Spencer Dock. A significant amount of money has been invested in the DART services in the greater Dublin area. By and large, whether rail, light rail or metro, there is much to look forward to in terms of new services, more capacity, passenger comfort and improved journey times.

My Department is providing funding for the development of quality bus corridors, green routes and other bus priority measures in a number of regional cities. These include two green routes and a park and ride site, which I was pleased to open in Cork last December, a bus lane on the Dublin Road in Galway, completed last month, and technology to give buses priority at key junctions in Limerick, which will be operational within weeks. A bus priority study is currently under way in Waterford from which specific bus priority proposals will emerge later this year. We have allocated €8 million for bus priority measures in the regional cities this year. I therefore expect further substantial progress in implementing bus priority measures later this year. Work planned this year includes a further three green routes in Cork, the commencement of work on the first bus lane in Limerick and work on giving buses priority at junctions in Galway. Discussions are taking place between the NRA and Galway County Council exploring whether it is possible to enable buses to use the hard shoulder on part of the N17 close to Galway city. I am examining other options to approve the use of hard shoulders for quality bus corridors. I invite Senators to let me know if there are areas where bus services, in particular quality bus corridors, can assist in transport measures. Some of the agencies working with my Department have indicated that journey times on quality bus corridors at peak hours compared to travelling by car can be improved by 72%. We should not lose sight of this fact, nor the fact that money is available to invest in these quality bus corridors which have proved to be extremely successful.

Before completing my reference to relevant examples of large transport projects, I would like to refer to the somewhat smaller but no less important work being undertaken under the rural transport initiative. There are currently 34 rural community organisations around the country which are being funded under the rural transport initiative to address the particular transport needs of their areas through the provision of local transport services. I am pleased I had the opportunity to launch the rural transport initiative on behalf of my colleague, the then Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, when I was not in the Department, and now learn of the huge benefit the rural transport initiative has been to the regions. It is now operational in virtually all counties, with some 2,500 transport services being provided on approximately 380 new rural routes established under the initiative. More than 40,000 passenger trips per month are being recorded on these services.

Area Development Management Limited manages the RTI on behalf of the Department and makes specific annual allocations to individual projects from funding provided by the Department. The Department has provided €3 million for the RTI in each of the years 2002, 2003, 2004 and has increased this to €3.45 million for 2005. By the end of 2005, we will have provided in excess of €12 million for this initiative, compared with €4.4 million committed in the national development plan. We have also committed to funding the programme in 2006, to the end of its pilot phase.

On transport development, the mandate given to my Department in An Agreed Programme for Government is to implement an integrated transport policy which will connect all routes. All of us have identified the work that has been taking place in the regions where bits of roads and services have been improved and new rail services have come on stream. We now need to ensure there is a co-ordinated approach to managing what will effectively be a new transport network and fully integrated services. Therefore, there is much to which to look forward.

I have also shown how we are building bridges between strategic planning at regional and local level and the realisation of our national investment priorities. More practical supports and investment will be needed in the coming years to give effect to the regional planning guidelines and achieve the Government's key objective of more balanced regional development. In this regard, the Department of Transport has a key role to play in ensuring that an efficient and effective transport system is provided to meet increasing demands and that it contributes to social development in terms of promoting regional balance, social inclusion and sustainable development. While a great amount of development and enhancement work has taken place in Ireland's system and transport networks in recent years, more is needed. There is a real challenge for my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, and me, in working with the implementing agencies to continue the significant investment programme to ensure the right projects are pursued at the right time.