Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is the point that I was coming to. The National Transport Authority spent an awful lot of money on planning various projects without the authority of either the Houses of the Oireachtas or a clear mandate from the public. The Department in which Deputy Ross is Minister has overall charge of transport policy. However, it seems that the National Transport Authority has developed into an agency which follows its own agenda, expends money on planning, consultancy and the like and when it has done its work, presents its conclusions, not on the basis that it is what the public wants but what its engineers want. That does not merely apply to rail and light rail transport and the metro service in Dublin but also to BusConnects. Engineers are creating solutions for Dublin on paper that will not work in practice.

I know that the House has just had the Minister, Deputy Ross, here. He cannot spend all his life in this Chamber and I accept that.