Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister to the House. Following publication yesterday of the rail report, the sub-plot and conversation in the media was around Dublin versus rural Ireland rather than the best use of scarce resources. I will speak later about the DART underground.

Within the Dublin region, tens of millions of euro accrued from the property tax are transferred into a central fund which also supports rural Ireland. I have always supported that. Almost 70% of all taxation is raised in the eastern region. The DART system within the Dublin region is subvented to the tune of approximately 90 cent per journey. When arguing for investment into a region or for development of road, rail or airport infrastructure, the generation of revenue to the State must be taken into consideration. One rarely hears an argument against this type of investment from the citizens or politicians of a particular region. We are obliged to ensure investment across the nation. We have heard many arguments in this House for investment in particular regions and motorways. I believe Galway airport closed because it became quicker to get to Galway via the new motorway, which rendered the airport economically unviable. Similarly, Cork Airport is suffering because it now is easy to drive from the outskirts of Cork to Dublin Airport because of the investment in that motorway. I often flew to Farranfore from Dublin Airport but because of the investment in the motorway network it is now far quicker for me to travel there by road. It must be remembered that investment in roads and motorways can result in the closure of rural airports. That is the reality. In regard to Senator Mac Lochlainn's argument regarding investment in motorways, I spoke to a colleague of his who represents Donegal and he was of the view that it was important to get investment into the airport in Donegal before the motorway is built because the airport would not economically stack up if the motorway was built first. We have to be very realistic.

The Minister will be aware that in terms of capacity, the DART currently transports 23,700 passengers per hour in or around the Dublin region. If the underground system was invested in capacity would increase to 73,300 passengers per hour. It would also result in expanded use of the rail network within the Dublin region and thus reduced journey times to Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. It would also mean that the travel time to Galway in less than two hours and from Dublin to Cork within three hours would be achievable. All of these things are important. For what in my opinion is a small investment in comparison with the likely increase in passenger numbers this investment would be worthwhile. When the Minister was a backbencher, he ran a huge campaign in relation to the tolling of the M50. There is now a campaign to enlarge the M50. The DART underground has the potential to eliminate all peak hour traffic journeys within the city. In terms of investment, investment in the DART underground stacks up, as does metro north in the context of the expansion of Dublin Airport and a new terminal 3. All of these projects are key infrastructural elements that will increase visitor numbers into Ireland.

The Minister referred in his opening statement to the ten-minute DART. I presume he was referring in that regard to an increased number of journeys under the current infrastructure such that there would be a DART every ten minutes on a regular basis. The funding to improve the signalling to allow for a DART every ten minutes on the current infrastructure was withdrawn last year.Is the Minister saying that the funding to allow the upgrading of the signalling at all junctions along the DART line is being reinstated?

If we are really serious about public transport, why is there such a delay in replacing the three members to the Iarnród Éireann board? The Minister has been in place since May and has appointed nobody, while he has reappointed 16 people.

I totally agree that the road safety figures are going the wrong way and it is a serious concern. When is the Minister going to make the appointments to the vacant positions in the Road Safety Authority? These vacancies were shown on the Department's website at the beginning of this month. When are the four members of the taxi advisory committee, which was in the news last week, going to be replaced? The Minister mentioned his commitment to climate change. Under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, from 13 December he will have a responsibility to report to this House and to the Dáil on his adaptation plans in that regard. While the 130 new buses are welcome, it also would be welcome if consideration was given to what fuel will be driving them.

The 9% VAT rate has been a huge success and the Minister supported it when it was introduced by the previous Government. We need to look at how we adapt that. We cannot set different VAT rates for different parts of the country but there is now certainly a shortage of hotel bedrooms in the Dublin area. A gouging of prices is probably taking place, along with an exploitation of people who come to stay in Dublin, but the 9% VAT rate stays in place. I ask the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues to look at a change in legislation to allow a bed tax to be introduced by local authorities.