Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

Other Senators have commented on the nature of the legislative programme for this session. One of the most prominent Bills concerns the proposal to set up the Dublin transport authority, the objective of which is to implement Transport 21 within Dublin and the Dublin region. Will the Leader facilitate a debate on Transport 21 and its implementation? Two issues merit debate. The first is the degree of change that is taking place in Transport 21. For example, the new plan proposes to put heavy rail rather than LUAS on the Broadstone line. This will seriously threaten the ability of the Grangegorman Institute of Technology to get planning permission for its new master plan and is the kind of policy change that should be debated here.

The second issue is one that was raised at the Joint Committee on Transport yesterday. The leaders of the local authorities within the Dublin area raised the prospect of congestion charging, a proposal not contained in Transport 21. It is the role of elected politicians and our leaders, such as the Minister for Transport, to raise such issues and have them debated in the House rather than leave it to executive managers in local authorities, who have no choice but to deal with the mess arising from the implementation of contradictory plans and for which they must carry the can.