Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. By 2045, the population of cities worldwide is projected to grow to 7 billion, of a worldwide total of 10 billion, which would account for 70% of the total population. According to the CSO's figures, there is no reason for Dublin to be exempt as at least 3 million people will live in Dublin by 2045. Planning for the future of the cities and transport, therefore, is vital to unclog their arteries which have been clogged to the detriment of rural areas, where there appears to be little availability of transport services. Transport is vital to have healthy cities and for our health and well-being. We must get it right when planning for the future. Nevertheless, in planning for the future in the area of transport, like planning in other areas, we must keep the environment and climate change as priorities. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Climate Action which produced a report last week. Sinn Féin has been instrumental in adding to the chapters and recommendations made on transport. Our alternative report contained further recommendations on transport. Given that we believed carbon tax was a scéal eile because it was not feasible, our report concentrated on transport, particularly in rural areas.

My fair city, Dublin, which is the capital city suffers from the worst congestion which has the most significant impact on the economy, jobs, housing and people. How we travel around the country and in cities is one of the largest challenges, but it provides an opportunity to tackle climate change and take climate action. The transport sector is second only to agriculture in the hierarchy of those who pollute the environment, with 20% of emissions last year from the transport sector, yet efforts to reduce that figure have thus far been abysmal. We will not reach our 2020 EU targets for renewable transport; in fact, we will fall far short of them, given that we have only achieved 1% of the reduction target for 2020.

Sinn Féin is often wrongly accused of being populist or protesting without offering alternatives. In response, I offer our alternative report, together with the good work done at the climate action committee, to which I am sure the Minister and every Department will refer when planning for the future.We believe electric transport is the way forward but there are a minimal number of electric vehicles on the road. Some Sinn Féin Deputies have test driven electric vehicles for weekends and have found them innovative and novel, but also quite efficient and fit for purpose for travelling the country. The problem is, as we all know, that the strategy for charging points is very poor and a mind set would need to be overcome to suggest one should have the confidence to take a journey without expecting to be abandoned in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. We need to roll out a strategy to make electric charging for vehicles more publicly available.

The cost of electric vehicles is prohibitive. The €5,000 grant does not come near making electric vehicles an alternative for ordinary families who are considering changing from diesel. We were told, a few years ago, that diesel was the best thing going and then, all of a sudden, we found out the lies and falsehoods of the car manufacturing companies that had hidden the damage diesel is doing to our environment.

We need significant change and more investment to attract people to buy electric vehicles. The cost is too prohibitive. Unfortunately, a carbon tax is going to come in at some stage and that will be punitive because people cannot afford to move away from polluting cars to what we call green cars. That is unfair and a lot of effort needs to be made. With Government intervention, electric vehicles could be sold at a loss that would eventually represent an overall gain in years to come.

There is no future certainty on the ownership of the public charging infrastructure for electric cars after the regulator decided, in 2007, that it should no longer be held by the ESB. Who will build, own and sell electricity through public charging for electric vehicles? Without public charging opportunities, people will have little confidence in purchasing electric cars and that confidence needs to be built so there is investment.

There is also the vital required investment in the electricity grid to support electric vehicles. At the moment, the grid could not cope with mass charging. The ESB estimates a need for an investment of €300 million to get 275,000 electric vehicles or heat pumps on the road. How will the electricity to supply electric vehicles be generated? What will be the mix in how our electricity is produced in the future? Electricity currently comes from fossil fuels, which we are going to have to do away with. As electricity generation is dominated by fossil fuels, what are the alternatives and in what will we invest?

We have debated our energy sources time and again. I keep saying that we cannot try and curb our use of an energy source without offering a real alternative. Where is the Government policy to develop compressed natural gas for heavy goods vehicles? That can be extracted from indigenous biogas but there is no policy in this area despite the State having one of the best resources of biogas in the EU. Establishing biogas or renewable gas can deal with farm waste and produce renewable gas to displace fossil fuels, which can power transport for Ireland. We need greater imagination on renewable energy in this State and this Government has very little to show for its eight years in office.

We need to change our lifestyles. It is a challenge for each of us but we need to change in positive and uplifting ways, rather than in response to punitive measures. We will never get anywhere if we go down the punitive road and nobody will change or feel positive or excited about a future that is quite different to what we grew up with in the past and what we have at present.

As there are gaps in dealing with those highly-dependent car users in the State, electric vehicles must be made affordable. Anything the Minister can do to promote that would be most welcome.

We need specific investment in Bus Éireann to effectively redress the shortcomings in rural transport. The alternative report by Sinn Féin I mentioned earlier proposes that the fastest, most efficient and practical measure we can introduce is to reduce transport emissions, address the significant deficits in existing public transport services and prioritise improvements in State-wide infrastructure.

We have a large over-reliance on cars. We are getting somewhere with the cycle lanes and I welcome the proposed Liffey cycle route. Can the Minister comment on the greenway route from Heuston to Kilmainham? I objected to its establishment at the time because the proposed Garda headquarters was going to overpass that due to security issues although that decision was successfully overturned. Can the Minister comment as to when construction on that might be commenced? Can he comment on the idea that we will work towards free public transport in this city and if that is on his radar?

We extended this discussion because of BusConnects. I have been involved with BusConnects since its inception and there have been many workshops, public meetings and much concern has been expressed by residents. Speaking parochially, the areas of Mount Brown and Kilmainham are already in distress, shall we say politely, on foot of the construction of the national children's hospital. The area will be further punished by the introduction of bus corridors, which will cause issues for access to their homes, to the national children's hospital for deliveries and patients and, obviously, the stymying of local access. There are 30,000 submissions on phase 1 and there will be a similar amount on phase 2. The project would take seven years to complete, were it to start tomorrow. It will perhaps be a few years in the tweaking. Perhaps the Minister will comment on the people who were initially asked to do an overall map of what BusConnects would like but who had no knowledge of the areas or the roads involved. It seems as though those people just sat at a computer and drew lines. The roads are named wrongly. They have articulated trucks going down impossibly small streets, which does not seem feasible. I appreciate there is more work to be done on it but some local knowledge would not have gone amiss.