Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This morning, the draft greater Dublin area transport strategy was published for public consideration, and I have to express a sense of shame that such a document could have been produced. It is vapid and commits us to nothing but the delivery of MetroLink at some point in the ten years following 2031 and of the BusConnects programme. Apart from those two pledges, there is a virtual standstill on Luas developments of any kind, with all of them postponed, under consideration or whatever it is, while the other projects have been simply put back to being dealt with in the period starting in 2042. I like to be positive, and one good aspect of this draft strategy document is that sanity has prevailed on its authors in their decision to drop the ridiculous idea of cannibalising the Luas green line and turning it into a MetroLink for a portion of its route. They have dropped that and stated challenges were involved in that. The first challenge was that it would have involved abandoning that line for two years while it was being upgraded, but in any event the expense involved would have been massive.

Moreover, today's edition of The Irish Timesreports that the estimated cost of implementing this programme has increased, although it is very modest in the context of what we are doing now, from €10 billion to €25 billion. That is pretty horrific.The time has come for a proper consultation on this. The NTA has had its way. It has bullied the Minister, Deputy Ryan, into abandoning the entire south west of Dublin completely. The people of Tallaght and Rathfarnham and such places are being told that they will get some kind of transport from 2042 onwards. That is not good enough. If we are serious about what is not happening, we should address it now. We had a discussion here about transport strategy last week. We did not see this document at the time. Now we have seen how absolutely naked the strategy is and how everything is a matter of we will consider this or we might consider that or we will evaluate this and study that and the work that has gone into studying this will not be forgotten and all the rest of it. Hundreds of millions of euro have been spent on planning certain projects and they are simply not going to be delivered.

The last thing I want to say is the present management of Dublin city seem to be intent on sequencing traffic lights so as to create traffic jams to discourage car usage. I was amused on Saturday afternoon to see traffic jams the whole way out to Clonskeagh because of this. That is not the way to treat citizens. It does not advance anything. It does not make cycling or walking any easier. It is just a futile ideological approach. I hope I do not sound too negative but we need a discussion of this document because one third of the people of Ireland live in the area to which it applies.