Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister to the House. While it is standard practice to welcome the opportunity to discuss Bills, this opportunity is particularly welcome because this legislation has been a long time coming. I compliment the Minister on bringing it forward as quickly as he has. I am based in County Wicklow and the Bill will have an immediate and direct effect on the county once it is passed. There is a need for the Bill. Unfortunately, my experience as a county councillor in Wicklow has pointed up the absence of integration between land use and transportation planning, which has caused major problems, and it had the potential to cause further problems had it not been addressed. I am glad the legislation will address them.

Much of our population growth in the Celtic tiger years occurred in the east. The greater Dublin region is now referred to as a metropolitan area. It has expanded into County Dublin's former hinterland to cover Counties Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. I am delighted the local authorities in these three counties will also be covered by the new transport authority. The four Dublin local authorities and three rural county councils are covered. It has been a challenge for them to deal with the population, housing and development pressures they have experienced because they have had no say over the provision of public transport and that has led to great problems in integrating their work with that of national and regional transport providers.

Councillors are largely concerned with responding to local needs and a strategic approach to integrating land use and transport planning is needed in the greater Dublin area. I refer to the development of Bray golf club lands in my constituency, which highlights the need for an authority such as that proposed in the legislation. A large €2 billion development was planned for the Bray golf club lands, which are very close to the existing town centre and would constitute an extension of the existing town centre. Bray has a significant number of bus terminuses and a DART terminus and is, effectively, a transport hub in the making. Unfortunately, the golf club lands were zoned for development without any reservation of land for the Luas to extend through the proposed development.

The Green Party councillors on Bray Town Council made an effort to reserve a corridor of land but that did not happen as part of the planning process. Later, when the Railway Procurement Agency displayed its proposals on the extension of the Luas from Cherrywood, its preferred route appeared to be one that would bring the Luas from Cherrywood towards Fassaroe, which is well outside Bray town centre in the foothills of the Wicklow mountains, land that is undeveloped as yet. It was only public outcry that caused the RPA to reconsider and now we have a satisfactory plan where the Luas will extend right to Bray town centre where it can connect with the DART line, the bus lines and the Dublin to Rosslare line, which makes transport sense. I hope the establishment of this new authority will avoid that kind of ad hoc approach to the integration of transport and land use planning where it was only public pressure that caused the proper transport and planning decision to be made in the end.

I welcome the Bill which is about providing an integrated transport system in the greater Dublin area through establishing the Dublin transport authority and ensuring the delivery of the planned Transport 21 investment. I understand the general functions of the authority will include strategic transport planning of the area, the regulation of public transport fares, the provision of public passenger transport services and infrastructure, effective traffic management, transport demand management, the carrying out of research, the provision of transport related statistics and the development of a single transport brand.

The public transport infrastructure area is of great interest to the Green Party. In this area, the authority's functions will include securing the provision of or providing public transport infrastructure, entering into agreements with other parties to secure this, including joint ventures and public private partnerships, the acquisition of land adjacent to public transport infrastructure and the facilitation of its development.

I support the comments of other speakers about what was said about privatising public transport services as opposed to provision of services by the State. I am comfortable with the fact that the provisions of the Bill do not make the privatisation of public transport services in the greater Dublin area inevitable. The way the Bill is structured appears to favour the continuation of a single main provider but does not exclude private competition. In the main, a single large provider could continue because in a country as small as Ireland with a limited population, a natural monopoly applies. If Dublin Bus and the other bus companies can continue to develop and provide an efficient and competitive service for the public, there is no reason we would have to go down the road of widespread privatisation. I welcome this.

I also welcome the idea of developing a single brand for the promotion of public transport. This will help the public to identify an enhanced public transport service in the greater Dublin area. I hope too that the Dublin transport authority will be able to implement integrated ticketing as soon as possible so that users of public transport can enjoy its benefits.

For me, the most welcome part of the Bill is Part 5, the land use provisions. These are important because they allow us deal with issues such as those to which I referred in Wicklow in terms of the integration of land use planning and transport. I note that the sections of the Bill dealing with co-ordination between planning authorities and the Dublin transport authority are clear. They set out that each planning authority within the Dublin area shall ensure its development plan is consistent with the transport strategy of the Dublin transport authority. Reference is also made to regional authorities which must ensure their guidelines are consistent with the transport strategy. Emphasis is placed also on the powers of the Minister who can direct a planning authority to take measures either to review or vary the draft development plan or proposed variation to ensure consistency between the draft development plan or proposed variation and the transport strategy of the DTA, and the authority shall comply with any such direction. There is encouragement in the Bill, therefore, for local authorities to take the issue of consistency with the overarching transport strategy for the region seriously.

If the Bill is implemented and the new authority works well, this will lead to much more efficient movement of people and goods around our capital and the greater Dublin area. This is in the interest of business, tourism, workers and other members of the public. I hope we will be able to enjoy the same level of excellent public transport other European capitals enjoy.

I have two questions for the Minister. Will he consider similar transportation authorities for other gateway cities or hubs in the near future? The Green Paper on local government reform was launched yesterday in which there is a clear commitment for a directly elected mayor of Dublin by the end of 2009. Would the Minister consider providing for the newly elected mayor of Dublin to be the chair of the Dublin transport authority?