James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of cannabis, I know that the Minister has been working on legislation to make this available to people and I support his endeavours in this regard because I believe it would be a very useful adjunct in treating people with various ailments.

I want to return to the issue of Brexit, which was raised, and indeed the Leader of the Opposition's comments around traffic congestion in Dublin. She is quite right to say that with the economy returning to strength in Dublin and with the efforts to make that happen throughout the country, this is going to be an issue. Brexit itself will provide many challenges, which we are aware of, but it will also provide many opportunities in the Irish Financial Services Centre and other centres. We hear unofficially that many companies have already decided to come here without making much of a brouhaha about it because of other sensitivities. Hundreds of jobs are coming our way already, and thousands may into the future. The challenges that will present are around housing and accommodation, office accommodation and, as has already been mentioned, transport.

Ireland has already made a special case, which is accepted, and using the precedent of the unification of West and East Germany, we have an opportunity through the European Investment Bank to avail of moneys off book and allow us expedite the infrastructure that we need. In particular I am talking about the metro, which is now more important than ever. Dublin Airport's stunning performance in terms of additional visitors to this country will be undermined if we cannot address the infrastructural deficit, not just with regard to the metro, which is critical and which will have the capacity to produce its own income to repay loans due through fares, but also roads, which have already restricted development. A major development in Belcamp was refused recently by Fingal County Council, which had no other option because of lack of road access.

These need to be addressed urgently, because there is no better place for housing. The land is all in Fingal. Some 75 acres have already been rezoned for office development in Dublin Airport which has not been put to full use yet. The original Dublin Airport plan for 10,000 jobs is already afoot. We have an opportunity to get up to 50,000 new jobs in this area. In terms of infrastructure, it will serve the rest of the country, with park and ride coming into that area. It will be useful for getting into town, for international business people commuting, and for tourists to access the rest of the country. For all these it is critical there is a metro like they have in Heathrow, where one can hop onto a train into London. Why not the same for Dublin?

Again, I welcome the Government's initiative to avail of the European Investment Bank capacity to fund these off book, and I do hope that metro will receive the priority that it should. It will help relieve the traffic congestion that the Leader of the Opposition has already mentioned.