Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome this opportunity to contribute on the broader transport issue. The motion is rather bland, hence the need for the Fine Gael amendment to it. This a topic to which we should return and devote a day to debating. Whether it be a town or country setting or an urban or rural setting, serious transport issues facing the country need to be resolved.

I listened to the contributions of previous speakers, especially that of Senator Hannigan. He spoke about subsidies which can make rail transport much more viable for commuters in certain countries. If we wish to move towards increased use of public transport, as is the case in any other area, we must be willing to invest in same.

On the broader issue of public transport versus private transport, in particular rail and bus transport versus the car and the motorway, there is a tendency to think in the George Orwell-speak of "Four legs good, two legs bad." In other words, that rail and bus transport are on the right side of the equation and that private transport and motorists are on the wrong side of it. The issue is far from being as simple as that. I do aspire to the belief, however, we must maximise the level of public transport available. We must also maximise the incentive and the possibility of that being provided, but that requires serious levels of investment.

The Fine Gael amendment briefly mentions some of the obvious problems we face. Everybody welcomes the apparent commitment of money under Transport 21, but the delivery and the provision of what has been written in that respect is another matter. Some of the progress under the programme has been quite slow. I have spoken on many occasions in the House about the need for investment on the rail side of the equation. I welcome what has been done so far. To paraphrase the former Taoiseach's phrase, there is a lot done, more to do. Much more investment is required.

A solution has not been found to transport issues in certain parts of the country. I ask the Minister of State to bring to the attention of his Department and that of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment the difficulty being experienced by commuters on the Kerry-Mallow rail line where on a weekly if not daily basis, as a result of a labour dispute, commuters from Kerry are being brought to Mallow and Cork by bus. It is causing considerable difficulty and as a result, some people are moving away completely from using public transport and returning to using their cars. The dispute is obviously between Iarnród Éireann and its staff but this has been ongoing at a certain level for some time and needs attention.

I will be parochial again and raise a road infrastructure issue I have raised on many occasions previously. I had to express bemusement and amazement when the Transport 21 plan was announced, notwithstanding the large number of roads scheduled for investment, that two roads in my region in north Cork, the Mallow-Mitchelstown and Mallow-Fermoy roads, amazingly were left off the list. I have brought this to the attention of the previous two Ministers for Transport. Roads with such high levels of commercial and domestic traffic as the Mallow-Mitchelstown and Mallow-Fermoy roads are in need of urgent investment and should have been included in the Transport 21 plan, I am disappointed that issue has not been addressed.

I hope we can return to the broader debate on this issue because we all favour maximising investment in public transport and allowing people the opportunity to travel in the most environmentally friendly way possible. While the billboards and the advertising signs throughout the country are aspirational and in some sense would remind one of the old signs one would have seen in the former Soviet Union and the eastern bloc advising how their countries were progressing so well, in reality, projects are not as progressive as those expensive signs would lead one to believe.

I genuinely look forward to having a broader debate on this issue as opposed to the issue being the subject of a Private Members' motion where one person says "Yes" to the motion and the other person "No" to it. We need to set aside a day to debate transport, which affects every family and individual.