Martin Brady (Fianna Fail)

I welcome my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern. I congratulate him on his new portfolio and know he will do a good job. He was Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works and for housing and he did excellent work. He is man who always has his feet on the ground and who never loses the run of himself. I wish him well in his new position.

I refer to what the previous speaker said. I do not mind being called a socialist because I always believe a socialist should have the best for himself or herself but I have not achieved that yet. Much progress has been made in regard Transport 21 in recent years, which we sometimes we forget. As recently as 1990, we only had 26 km of motorway while a decade ago, we had fewer than 100 km. The most pleasing development is that most of the road schemes are coming in ahead of schedule and under budget. No one can accuse us of overruns anymore.

Some 234 new buses have been purchased and 110 have been delivered. I congratulate CIE, Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann on the role they have played. They have done a magnificent job. In the area I represent, Donaghmede, one can get a bus or a DART every ten minutes. If one wants to go to the Red Cow roundabout, one can be there in less than three quarters of an hour. Much progress has been made.

In the old days when I had to go to Cavan at weekends, one got a bus at 6.30 p.m. and if one missed it, one would not get another one until 12 p.m. the following day. If one went out to Blanchardstown, which Senator O'Toole will know, there were lines of people on the road thumbing lifts because some did not have sufficient money to pay their bus fares and they depended on the goodwill of people with cars to give them a lift. If the bus broke down, which happened to me one frosty night, one could be up to two hours waiting for a recovery vehicle. If one was unlucky enough not to have a nice person sitting beside one, it could be quite a boring wait.

Thank God the same situation does not prevail on that route today. One can get a bus on the hour, which is very convenient for Bus Éireann customers. One can get a return fare from Dublin to Cavan for approximately €9, which is good value for money. People often complain about the bus service but in some cases, one can get a bus on the half hour. Much progress has been made in that regard.

I refer to the new inter-city trains which have been purchased. I have been on some of them and it is like being in a sitting room. They are superb and they run on time. Some people say the trains are overcrowded but trains in many countries are overcrowded. I have been in France and in various other countries and trains there are overcrowded as well. There will never be a situation in which a train or a bus will not be overcrowded at some point in the day. We are sometimes too critical and want to get the bus the minute we arrive at the bus stop. That is not a reasonable expectation.

I refer to taxi and hackney services in rural areas. In some parts of the country, it is very difficult to get a taxi and people run mini-cabs. If one is travelling five miles, one might have to do a country run of approximately 30 miles to get to one's destination. In other words, a ten-minute journey might take an hour. Senator Ellis and others raised this issue. We must consider the situation in rural areas where people have become prisoners in their own homes. They cannot go out because they are afraid to drive if they have a drink. People used to go to the local pub, including one I know called Lisgrey House which is close to my home place, to play cards and do Irish dancing. That has all stopped. One of the reasons is that it is so inconvenient to get transport to and from the pub.

Parents in rural areas have become taxi operators. They must pick up their children, leave them at parties, etc. My sister-in-law spent an entire Sunday driving children around. We need to seriously consider that issue. I do not know what the solution is but we must come up with proposals and put in place the proper infrastructure. If we do not do so, the fabric of society will be damaged and the social element of rural life will diminish. That would not be good for society in general.

We cannot ignore the major progress which has been made in regard to transport but there is more to come. We are not stopping at this. More progress will be made and we will keep everyone updated.