Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Senator McGreehan, for sharing her time with me. As many in this House will be aware, I am passionate about public transport and the need for better, more accessible, more inclusive public transport and a total overhaul of the public transport network. People in this country are very much aware of the need to get out of the private vehicle, but they need to be given the opportunity to do so and to have public transport that suits where they live and how they live.

I am coming from the point of view of living in north County Dublin. It is the fastest growing part of Europe. We have housing planned first and then, after a long time, comes the public transport, and that should not be the way. The public transport should be put in place first; otherwise, people are condemned to a life trapped in a car, trapped in traffic, trapped on a motorway, wasting their lives away in the process. People want to be able to take the train, but the trains are packed and the service scant. We in north County Dublin were very disappointed that the timeline for the metro got pushed out even further. People have given up all hope, and it is hard to blame them because this has been going on for more than 20 years. As for the expansion of the DART north, while I commend the Government on extending the DART west and south, I do not know why we in north County Dublin are being left to last when we are absorbing most of the housing needs of Dublin and have a completely underdeveloped public transport network which is already creaking before the building of thousands and thousands more houses there. Even though we in north County Dublin are not as such in the capital city, we are a short distance from it. The children, teenagers and young people in north County Dublin cannot easily access third level and college campuses. It is virtually impossible to get to the UCD campus. It is very difficult to get to our local university, DCU, by public transport. If you were to hop into your car, you could be in DCU in 15 minutes; if you were to get the bus, it would take an hour and a half. That is completely unacceptable. Until we start addressing these real life issues and allow people to access their third level institutions, their hospitals and other services, they will stick to their cars, and who is to blame them for doing so? It will be an indictment of the Government if we do not deliver decent, accessible, suitable public transport for the people of Ireland.

I wish the Minister of State luck in her brief. It is a big task. I know there is a commitment there, but we need the follow-through from all arms of the Government.