Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 467: To ask the Minister for Transport when he asked officials in his Department to consider the study on park and ride facilities completed in 2002; if it still holds true at this stage; and when he expects to have a response from them. [11622/08]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The study Bus-Based Park and Ride — A Pilot Scheme, published in 2002, was prepared by consultants from TAS for the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO). This study concluded that bus-based park and ride had only a limited role to play in Dublin, and did not offer a strategic solution to transport problems in cities on the scale of Dublin, due to the population size and travel distances involved. At the same time, the study concluded that there may be opportunities for "satellite park and ride", through the provision of a series of smaller park and ride nodes on a corridor. This form of park and ride is more appropriate where travel distances are great and demand is disparate.

The TAS study forms one component feeding into park and ride strategy, and is complemented by a DTO study, endorsed by my predecessor in 2005, which addresses park and ride on the existing and planned future rail network in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA). This second study identified 22 existing and future sites for the development of park and ride, on mainline commuter rail, on the Luas and on the Metro.

Both of these studies have been considered by my Department, and have fed into my Department's policy regarding park and ride, including through the provision of funding under our ten-year investment programme, Transport 21. A programme of works to upgrade parking facilities at mainline rail stations has been undertaken, and park and ride facilities are in operation along the Luas network. Further park and ride facilities will be provided on the extended Luas network and the Metro as and when these projects become operational.

In the light of the TAS study, I have also made funding available to local authorities in the GDA for the provision of bus-based park and ride facilities. To date, there have been no applications for this funding. A plan by South Dublin County Council for a park and ride facility close to the Lucan/Leixlip interchange, which would have been eligible for this funding, was refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanála in late January of this year.