John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House and his introduction of this long-awaited Bill. The need to establish a Dublin Transport Authority has been talked about for the past number of years. The need for it has been sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb for the past 15 or 20 years. Regardless of how this legislation is enacted, we must accept that some people will find fault with it, as that is the case with every Bill that comes before this House.

It is important we take into account that this authority is meant to serve the people of the greater Dublin area and those who commute to and from Dublin on a regular basis. In doing so, it must provide a fast, efficient and integrated transport system. We are all aware of the problems in introducing the integrated ticketing system. Work on that project that been ongoing for the past number of years. A considerable amount of money has been wasted by various bodies which contended they had the ability to do that job but still have not done it. The Minister has this project in hand. It needs to be dealt with.

This will be a powerful authority. Its operations will extend down to the level of who will or will not get planning permission in certain areas of suburbia. That is somewhat worrying. It is also dangerous in that certain planners may overstep the mark on planning decisions. We have all seen situations where planners have been left with too much power. Having gone through the Bill, it appears that neither the Minister nor anyone else will have power to override them. It may be necessary to include a provision to ensure members of the public are protected from adverse decisions which arise from the consequences of previous encounters with planners. We all know that personal vendettas have often been carried through by planners in this city and its suburbs.

The legislation presents an opportunity to provide the public with a first class service. That is very important. The Dublin Transport Authority needs to be established and functioning as quickly as possible. I agree partly with what Senator O'Donohoe said about the need for accountability, from management level down to the local elected representatives because it is the latter who will take the blame if it does not work. They are entitled to have an input into how it operates. The Minister might consider ensuring that some members of the board should be elected public representatives from the local authorities. The old embargo applying to Members of the Oireachtas being members of boards such as this one is still intact. It is time it was examined because it discriminates against Members, who have been elected to this and the other House. Lifting the embargo might be in the best interests of the country.

The provision whereby Oireachtas Members are no longer allowed to be members of local authorities has not been to the betterment of local government. Anyone involved in it would confirm that. When Members were also allowed to be members of local authorities, their time was divided between the two roles and perhaps people thought they could not give a commitment to either one or the other, but the change made in that respect has not led to an improvement in local government.

In appointing the board, it is important that local authority members be represented. Of all the people involved in the authority, county managers will play a major role. Given that, they should be required to take questions on what is happening in the authority at their local authority meetings and not respond to local authority members to the effect that it is an executive power. That needs to be examined because there is a danger that the authority could become totally executive driven and that the people who are at the coalface might not have an input.

That authority will have enormous resources available to it directly or indirectly from the Exchequer. It will be accountable to the Comptroller and Auditor General and to Oireachtas committees. A small section might be included requiring the authority to respond to elected public representatives within 14 days of representation. That might help to break down barriers. If there is not a mechanism by which to question a representative of a body such as the Dublin Transport Authority, we may be fobbed off. It has happened with the HSE. Elected members have put questions to members of its advisory bodies to which they receive answers one day that are totally different from the answer the Minister may give the following day. That is wrong and unfair to those who are on the advisory committees and to Ministers.

The legislation presents an opportunity to ensure that accountability to elected representatives is paramount. This body will be responsible for major development in this city. It will designate in terms of bus transport, have a role in rail transport and a major role in the provision metro north and the upgrading of the rail system in this city. It will have an input, albeit indirectly, in that regard. We need an integrated system and the legislation presents an opportunity to ensure we get that. We have said and heard enough about the integrated ticketing system. I hope that this time it will be successful. We have had promise after promise but there has been a failure to deliver.

The integration of transport and land use planning is something that causes me slight concern, but it must be done. Wherever development takes place, there is a need to ensure proper facilities are put in place to serve the people in those areas. There is not much sense in a major housing estate being built in a 14 ft cul de sac. That is the sort of planning that is involved. I hope conditions will be laid down requiring the DTA to respond within a given period in the same way as An Taisce or any of the other prescribed bodies. There is no point in arriving at a situation where a planning application cannot be processed further because the authority has not made its submission, which it is entitled to make. The Bill must specify a mandatory period in which the authority must make its submission. If it does not make such a submission within the timeframe, it cannot raise the matter again later. It is imperative that such a provision is included in the legislation. It is useless to give an authority an endless ball of twine with which it can decide to do something at any point in time. There should be a mandatory period for a response.

This Bill provides us with an opportunity to provide this city and its hinterland with a first-class transport system and that must be our aim. The Minister has suggested a 12 to 21-year schedule, which is fine. However, we must have a three-year schedule initially rather than a six-year one. This will speed up the process of making the necessary provisions. I say this because the authority could be used as a mechanism for delaying development in certain parts of the city.

Is there a case to be made for a semi-permanent board of some description which would report to the overall board fortnightly or monthly? Where one has only a chief executive and his or her various minions, there must be a division of responsibility among the people who report to the chief executive officer. The authority will be dealing with rail, metro, Luas, DART, buses, taxis and all the different elements of our transport system. I am fearful of a situation developing where no one is responsible. That will happen if responsibility for each of the various elements is not designated to specific individuals. Someone must be accountable for the taxi service in our city, for example, and be answerable to the chief executive of the authority if it is not working properly. The same applies to the functioning of the bus service, the integrated ticketing system and so forth. The chief executive is responsible for the overall system but he or she cannot be expected to have responsibility for problems such as bus lanes in Artane or the DART service somewhere else.

Whatever structures are put in place, those working within the authority must be responsible and accountable. They must be obliged to answer to the chief executive and the board of the authority. The board should have the right — as should Members of this House through the Oireachtas Committee on Transport — to call individuals before it to give an account of anything that is causing problems. We do not want a situation to develop where responsibility rests nowhere and decisions are long-fingered. It must be the case that specific people have specific responsibilities. If that does not happen, we will have the same old quango system we have seen in other organisations.

This Bill is a major step forward and I know the Minister will drive it with all his might to ensure this city has a proper transport system. Like me, the Minister must get in and out of Dublin. He knows how bad it was until quite recently. We now have bus lanes and other facilities which have improved the public transport service and drawn people to use it.

We must develop park and ride facilities far outside the city. If that means the compulsory purchase of land, then so be it. In that way, we will ensure more people are able to use public transport. At the moment, many people would love to do so but have nowhere to park their car safely. We should consider building car parks for commuters similar to those in the city centre. It would encourage more people to use public transport.