Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to outline rail issues. I am slightly confused about the announcement made about 28 rail carriages. Initially they were supposed to be renovated but, as he said in his speech, an announcement was made about 41 new carriages which will not come on stream until the year after next. There was another commitment to leasing 60 to 80 used carriages for delivery in February 2020 at some stage. I ask the Minister to clarify the different announcements, especially the one about the 60 to 80 carriages.

As I am sure the Minister knows from his colleagues in Fine Gael who are canvassing in Dublin Mid-West and north Dublin and are speaking to commuters, they are seeing buses driving by them and full Luas carriages. Public transport is supposed to form part of creating a greener environment by taking people out of cars.

No one is going to get out of a car to stand at a bus stop if buses are going by full. On top of that, the M50 is in crisis, as are various road networks.

As luck would have it, at a meeting of the transport committee this morning we were discussing cycling and cycle lanes. Under action 97 of the climate action plan, I was asked to raise the commencement of full implementation of the national cycle policy framework. It refers to local authorities setting out a clear pathway and timetable for the installation of dedicated cycle infrastructure. I am not just talking about greenways but also about people who want to commute to work using cycling as their mode of transport. It does not seem to be the case that the money followed the provision in the climate action plan on the national cycle policy framework. Where are the councils supposed to draw the money from to put in place the infrastructure? Perhaps the Minister could outline how that will happen. Perhaps he will refer to the thinking when roads are being designed. He mentioned an allocation of hundreds of millions of euro or billions of euro for the road network. This should be compared with the provision for the cycle network. When designing and upgrading roads, it should be insisted that account be taken of the national cycle policy framework. That is in regard to the overall transport issue. It is a question not only of commuters and the road network, which is creaking at the seams, but also of the announcements on the trains, whose provision could be two years away, or more.

The Minister referred to the sports capital programme. While we welcome the ability to appeal and the ability to engage with first-time applicants, I am aware from having been involved in applications that there is an issue with the per capitacriterion and the arrangement for linking with other organisations when it comes to disadvantage. The Minister, through his officials, might be able to clarify this. The per capitacapacity in a county such as Leitrim is obviously fairly low. It is welcome that the scoring mechanism is online and no longer very secretive. Finding out how to get points under the sports capital programme was like trying to decipher the third secret of Fatima. If an organisation is from a small county or small area and has no other organisation to partner with, its ability to increase its score is limited. It is up against organisations in the Dublins of this world, which obviously have considerable capacity to partner with other organisations and have a significant per capitascore.

While the Minister outlined the position on rail carriages, there have been other announcements on them. It is too long for those standing waiting for trains in the commuter belt to wait until 2021. The same applies to the Luas, buses and cycle network. Ambition is not being matched to the funding for programmes in this regard.