Brendan Ryan (Labour)

When I spoke on this Bill previously, I welcomed it because the Labour Party has been calling for it for some time. The DTA is a vital agency that should have been established sooner. It has been established now and we are grateful for that. We advocated that the DTA be placed on a statutory basis, have real powers to oversee development of transport, infrastructure and services and be accountable to the citizens of the greater Dublin area.

The Bill defines the greater Dublin area as the city of Dublin, south Dublin, Fingal, Dún Laoghaire, Rathdown, Kildare, Wicklow and Meath. As I argued previously, it should have included Drogheda, which is now an integral part of the greater Dublin area. It is difficult to understand why it was not included. The Labour Party pressed the Minister on this in both Houses, but to no avail. However, the Bill contains the mechanism to address this later, which I hope will happen.

The Labour Party wanted to make the new transport planning body more effective, democratic and accountable and to avoid it becoming another HSE with no accountability to the Oireachtas. We tabled a number of amendments to ensure that this failing was addressed. However, we did not get the response from the Minister that we sought.

We have had the debates and the amendments and have made our arguments as cogently and forcibly as we could and there is no point in rehashing matters at this stage. In fairness to the Minister, he has accepted some of our ideas for improving the Bill, including some important changes relating to the public submissions in key areas. The Bill has now passed through both Houses and I welcome it. Notwithstanding the reservations that motivated our amendments, I wish it every success in bringing about the much-needed improvements in public transport in the greater Dublin area in years to come. I thank the Minister and his staff for the manner in which they brought the Bill through the various Stages.