Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

I am delighted to have the Senator in attendance and contributing to the debate. I look forward to my colleagues being in attendance to hear his contribution as, unfortunately, I have to attend a parliamentary party meeting at 6 p.m. However, I will do my best to finish my contribution.

The first national cycle policy framework has been published and progress is being made on a range of actions, including the first ever all-Ireland bike week and the commencement of the national cycle network project. I am glad to say that this afternoon I have overseen the provision of 16 new cycle parking spaces outside my Department on Kildare Street. That sends a nice message that we are providing the nuts and bolts needed to assist the cycling project. There has already been success with the dublinbikes scheme in Dublin. It has been an outstanding success. I am sure many Members have the smart card which allows usage of the scheme and I have found it an excellent way to get around the city. On the rare days when I do not have my own bike with me I use the scheme. I spoke to people in Dublin City Council about it earlier and the amount of journeys has exceeded all expectations; it is the most successful bike sharing scheme in western Europe. The figures speak for themselves; they show the scheme has worked very well. I pay tribute to Dublin City Council for its work in this regard. I was initially sceptical of the deal with JCDecaux, but I have seen the results on the ground and I am delighted with the significant increase in the numbers cycling in Dublin.

We have also begun preparations for a national walking policy which might strike people as a little curious. We have to look at what can assist people in allowing them to walk, whether it be an increase in "green" times, providing further crossing points in our cities, towns and villages or ensuring there are pedestrian operated signals at crucial points within areas. The green schools travel programme had reached 144,000 schoolchildren in 482 schools by the end of 2009, yielding an average reduction of 18% in the number of children travelling to school by car. This equates to a saving of 100,000 car trips per annum. I do not want to bore Senators with statistics, but the overall conclusion is that the programme is working. Those familiar with schools participating in it know it has been a brilliant success. We are also developing a national cycle competency accreditation scheme for schoolchildren.

We have 65,000 employees in 30 organisations participating in the National Transport Authority workplace travel schemes, with a 16% reduction in the level of car usage. There is a national programme which targets a figure of 250,000 employees up to 2012.

South Dublin County Council commenced a pilot personalised travel plan for Adamstown, while we have a pilot cross-Border car-sharing scheme in counties Derry and Donegal. We have the sustainable travel demonstration project fund with €15 million to be allocated over five years and 30 projects approved for funding. A sustainable travel demonstration areas fund of €50 million to be allocated over five years was also put in place. The names of some 39 areas have been submitted by local authorities for funding, with 11 potential schemes being short-listed and the final selection to be made in June.

We need new institutional arrangements and legal changes which I am glad to say are happening. The national sustainable travel office was established in the Department, while an interdepartmental steering group is in place to oversee progress on all of the actions listed in the smarter travel initiative. We have a local authority network to liaise on issues of common interest and co-ordinate delivery at local level. I met its members when they came to the Department two weeks ago. There was tremendous enthusiasm among the local authorities, which is where we will see the benefits. It is up to them to move ahead. The point I would make in my new position is that for a very small investment, we can reap enormous dividends in both cycling and walking. Local authorities understand the message and are putting their money where their mouth is.

The Public Transport Regulation Act 2009 is one of the most ground-breaking pieces of legislation since the earlier enabling legislation was enacted in the 1930s. I am glad we have updated it. We have established the National Transport Authority and the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 is before the Oireachtas. We have put in place guidelines for sustainable residential development in urban areas to get away from the low density developments of previous years. I remember hearing the author Colm Tóibín talk about public transport some 20 years ago. He said that if people had a front, back and side garden, there was no way there could be decent public transport services. I agree with what he said. The essential point is that we need the required densities. It is very hard to deliver good public transport services if we do not have them in the first instance.

I am glad to say the National Transport Authority is finalising a new cycle design manual. It has been a long and sometimes painful gestation period of over eight years. We have a draft document that is approximately 400 pages long, but I do not want to throw the baby out with the bath water. It is a good document and I want to see it come to fruition later this year.

We have guidance developed by the Department, the National Transport Authority and the quality bus network project office on provisions for cyclists in the design of quality bus networks. There is an urban street design manual being prepared. The UK streets manual is an excellent document which shows how we can produce a decent quality environment in our towns and cities without having the cattle-grid crossing points I have seen far too often. I want to get away from this thinking and make the pedestrian king, with the cyclist second-in-command. I also want to make provision for cars and public transport services, but we must get the balance right. We must have everyone in his or per proper place in the transport spectrum.

The Department has made submissions to regional authorities as part of the public consultation process on draft regional planning guidelines, in which it has emphasised the importance of the integration of transport and land use planning.

We introduced the taxsaver scheme for cycling. We do not have records on it, given that it depends on employer compliance, but one can look around towns and cities at the number of thriving bike shops. This shows that the bike to work scheme is reaping benefits. In the Department of Transport, many of my colleagues are taking advantage of the scheme. It is working well.

We introduced a carbon tax in the December 2009 budget as a necessary part of facing up to climate change. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, is commencing the first household travel survey to establish base line indicators for monitoring the smarter travel policy. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has commissioned a major study of freight and goods movements to establish existing patterns and operations. This long list gives Senators a flavour of what has been done so far in a short timeframe and shows that the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, and I are committed to delivering on the smarter travel agenda.

I wish to remark on the enhancement of the public transport system, which is at the heart of the sustainable travel agenda. Notwithstanding the real challenges that the Government faces in the current difficult economic climate, we remain committed to providing the infrastructure and services required to deliver a modern, high-quality public transport system. This has been demonstrated by Government support for bus services in the form of €82.4 million in Exchequer subventions in 2010.

In recent months, investment in infrastructure has seen the opening of the Luas extension to the docklands and phase one of the western rail corridor. I am glad to say I attended both openings. They were joyful days, as local people and visitors to the Point were delighted to see the extension of the Luas into the docklands. Harry Crosbie is grinning from ear to ear on this one. At a more practical level, the new and old communities in the docklands are delighted to have the Luas extension.