John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

——and everything is joined up. This must be the main aim of public transport policy in Dublin. Examining it from outside, I see total merit in the provision of the metro and the Luas extensions. They will make a major contribution to providing people with an efficient and reliable service. People will know they will arrive on time and not be at the whim of a traffic jam or a minor road accident. We have seen minor accidents jam the traffic in the city for hours.

The removal of HGVs from the city through the use of the Dublin Port tunnel has made a major contribution to enabling people to go about the city in public transport or their cars. It has removed traffic from the city centre. None of us will regret that HGV juggernauts have been removed from the inner city because they caused problems with traffic congestion. One always knew the time the boats sailed because if one was coming up the quays within an hour and a half of the boat, one saw the HGVs bumper to bumper. Now they can get off the M50 via the port tunnel and arrive without causing inconvenience for people in the city centre.

We must consider other measures making a contribution to Transport 21. The Minister of State was right to state we never had the level of resources that we do now to provide public infrastructure and we all accept this. In doing this, we do not want to see everything pushed into one part of the country. Certain parts of the country, including my own, still have serious road problems. Towns which previously had mini-bypasses now need bypasses. I appeal to the NRA to examine these now and plan ahead. I will mention Carrick-on-Shannon, which has a bypass but is becoming a bottleneck on the N4 at weekends and other times. The bypass provided was a type of inner relief road. The NRA is progressing this.

The one benefit I see from the road improvements which have taken place, particularly on the N4 which I use, is that it now takes me 20 minutes less to get to Dublin than it did three years ago without having to break the law. This is where we see the difference. It is 20 minutes and a large amount of emissions saved because one is driving efficiently and not stuck in traffic jams. I have no doubt the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, will continue to drive Transport 21. When we discuss it in two or three years' time we will realise the bulk of Transport 21 will have been delivered and that commuters in Dublin and throughout the country will have the standard of service they deserve.