Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Callely, to the House. Belatedly, I congratulate him on his initiative, in that he is attempting to do something for transport in Dublin. However, the two senior Ministers who preceded him have failed and did little. While the Minister of State is trying to do something about the transport issue in Dublin, he does not hold the purse strings and his hands are tied.

The Minister of State's initiative is not the first time that such an initiative has taken place. In 1998, former Deputy John Bruton and Deputy Olivia Mitchell held a conference on transport in Dublin. All the agencies referred to by the Minister of State were present. In 2003, as Fine Gael's spokesperson on transport, Deputy Naughten held another conference on the issue in Citywest at which the various organisations were also present. Several different issues emerged from those conferences.

The time for talking is over and done with. Everyone knows what is wrong. One does not need any more conferences to know what is wrong with transport in Dublin and with the congestion occurring on a daily basis in the city. Even the recent by-elections in Meath and Kildare threw up many different plans and remedies to solve Dublin's transport issues. However, it all comes down to funding. We could talk until the cows come home, but unless money is provided and unless the Department of Transport and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, provide finance to put in place various solutions that have been proposed in reports over the last ten years, nothing will happen.

As the Minister of State's trip to Germany revealed, very few agencies were involved in the German initiative. Obviously, however, decisions were made and money was made available. The Minister of State has noted that park and ride facilities and other remedies were put in place. The various agencies here seek different things, all of which cost money. The Department of Transport should state that it will put in place park and ride facilities in various areas on the city's outskirts.

Opening up railway lines is another issue. For example, the railway service between Dublin and Westport has broken down four times in the past six weeks, which would put anyone off the idea of travelling by train to and from the west. I do not know what the Department of Transport is doing on this matter.

When the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, was the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, he established strategic policy committees, SPCs. Every local authority had an SPC on transport and I am sure these SPCs have something to say or are they redundant now that the Minister of State has put this initiative in place? The Dublin Regional Authority is also an authority on transport but no comment from it is visible here. The Fine Gael position on the Dublin transportation issue is one the Minister of State should take up and run with.