John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Bradford for sharing his time with me. I am glad to have this opportunity to speak on the issue of transport. I agree with Senator Bradford that we should have more debates on this issue.

The Government motion, to which an amendment has been tabled, begged amendment. It is a one line statement: "That Seanad Éireann commends the Government on its commitment to transport investment under Transport 21." It is the Government's job to invest in transport and the mechanism to do that is Transport 21. The motion is a little like commending the Government on Christmas or the Department of Transport on being that Department. Such investment is a function of Government. I am delighted to support the Fine Gael amendment, as proposed by my colleague, Senator Donohoe.

I wish to raise a number of specific issues. Previous speakers mentioned advertising. I was in Cuba last year and Fidel would be very proud of some of the posters on the Transport 21 initiative. I disagree with a point Senator Ellis made about rail freight. I travel the road from Dublin to Waterford and Kilkenny several times each week. I acknowledge that in parts of the country in which there are no railway lines or railway stations, rail freight is not a viable option. However, on that route and on other inter-urban routes where there are existing railway networks, we should do more to encourage people to use those to get freight off the road because there has been a huge increase in traffic from that sector in recent years.

Previous speakers mentioned overruns in time and money. Much of what was promised under Transport 21 has been put back and many projects in my immediate area, including the Waterford bypass, are scheduled to run behind time. Even the Carlow bypass, which was due to open this month, will not open even though it appears most of the work has been completed. However, it would be churlish of me not to admit that much money has been invested. There has been a great improvement in the road network.

However, the town with the most appalling traffic is my local town of New Ross, County Wexford. Unfortunately, it is not in my constituency. The bypass for New Ross has been on the agenda since I was elected to the county council in 1999 and it was projected to be completed a couple of years ago. Not only is it not complete, it has not commenced. It is a major European route because it is the link between Rosslare Port and Cork. The stretch of road between Rosslare and Waterford is included in Transport 21 and yet nothing is happening to that stretch of road. It is a nightmare for people living on the Kilkenny side of the bridge in New Ross, County Wexford.

I refer to what Senator Ross said. The former Taoiseach, in one of his more famous contributions, said he was a socialist and that there were only two or three left. Senator Martin Brady was reputed to be one of the three but Senator Ross is in danger of stealing that mantle because he made a very good suggestion that the Government should consider providing public transport free of charge for a trial period of six months or a year. I deplore this notion by the Green Party and others, who have ideological hang-ups about public transport, that the way to get people to use public transport is to tax them out of their cars. People driving cars are taxed enough already. If we want to encourage people to use public transport, we must provide the service and the possibility of providing that service free of charge should be considered.