Written answers

Thursday, 17 July 2014

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Programme for Government Priorities

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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772. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide in tabular format the commitments under the programme for Government which his Department is responsible for; the progress made to date with regard to each commitment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32402/14]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The commitments under the Programme for Government for which my Department are responsible and the progress made to date with regard to each commitment is included in the table below  

Output IndicatorsProgress to date
Abolish the Travel Tax as part of a deal with airlines to restore lost routes 

International access is vital to tourism recovery. We will abolish the €3 travel tax subject to a deal being agreed with Ryanair and Aer Lingus to re-open closed routes and bring more tourists into Ireland. If no deal can be done, there will be no reduction in the tax.
In Budget 2014 the Government announced the introduction of a zero rate travel tax initiative as part of a process aimed at generating new airline routes into Ireland and this came into effect from 1 April 2014.  

There has been a positive response to the initiative from airlines the introduction of new routes and increased capacity on existing services from Dublin, Shannon, Cork and Knock. A total of 23 new services have been announced commencing in 2014 along with additional capacity on 21 existing routes from the four main airports.
We will work with the Aviation Regulator to cut airport charges in order to deliver increased routes, airlines and passenger numbers. 

There were over 24.8m passengers through Irish airports in 2013 up 4%. Dublin Airport had its third successive year of growth of passenger numbers led by a record-breaking performance on transatlantic traffic.  As a result of this strong growth, a €5.6 million rebate in airport charges is being paid to a total of 40 airlines at Dublin Airport under the growth incentive scheme.

New and additional routes have been announced out of Dublin, Shannon and Cork to North America, Europe and the UK. On 29 May 2014 the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) published a draft determination proposing to lower charges at Dublin Airport by 22% over the next five years.  Stakeholders have until 31 July to make submissions on the CAR draft determination.  A final determination is due in September 2014.  
A modern high speed transport system is essential to ensure our economic competitiveness. We will support the expansion in range and frequency of high capacity commuter services, which will be subject to cost benefit analysis. The Public Transport Investment Programme is being rolled out in line with the “Infrastructure & Capital Investment Medium Term Exchequer Framework 2012 -2016”.  Projects/Programmes included in the Framework are:

The Luas Cross City Project, which will link the two existing Luas Lines in Dublin City Centre, was the key public transport project prioritised under the 5-year capital framework. The project is progressing well to agreed timelines and is on target for completion by end-2017.


Other priorities included for implementation are also progressing on time and to budget as follows:

- Railway Safety and Capital Maintenance Programme;

- Replacement Public Service Obligation (PSO) buses;

- Upgrade of existing QBCs in the GDA with emphasis on the Ballymun/Airport/Swords corridor;

- Removal of certain pinch points/bottlenecks including some urban rail level crossings; and 

- The Regional Cities Programme which funds the development of sustainable transport projects in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
Funding will be provided on a once off basis to repair damage done to non-national roads due to recent severe weather conditions.  As part of the 2011 Jobs Initiative an extra €60 million was reallocated to regional and local roads to carry out surface restoration and road reconstruction works. Subsequently, an additional €50m. was allocated to regional and local roads under  Government stimulus measures in 2013 and funding in 2014 includes an extra €50m allocated in the Budget for work on regional and local roads. In addition, as a result of the severe weather in the December/January period the Government confirmed additional funding of €16.8 million for repairs to roads damaged during the period 13 December 2013 to 6 January 2014. In addition, a further €20m was allocated to local authorities in May 2014 as part of the Infrastructure Stimulus Package (Phase 4).
We recognise the need to rebalance transport policy to favour public transport. We will therefore establish a Cabinet sub-committee on Infrastructure to explore the benefits to the public transport passenger of more diverse bus service provision. In December 2013, the National Transport Authority (NTA) announced that about 10% of publicly subvented (PSO) bus services currently operated by Dublin Bus and by Bus Éireann will be tendered out with the new services commencing in late 2016.  These routes include some orbital routes and local routes in Dublin, and some Dublin commuter routes into Leinster as well as Waterford routes.
The rural transport network is vital for rural communities as a reliable and sustainable transport service. We will maintain and extend the Rural Transport Programme with other local transport services as much as is practicable. A major restructuring of the Rural Transport Programme (RTP) was announced in July 2013, including the establishment of 18 Transport Co-ordination Units (TCUs) replacing the existing 35 RTP Groups, to  manage rural transport services within their area. The new structures will maintain the focus on social inclusion, with stronger links into local policy making by local authorities and will position rural transport within a national integrated public transport network. They will ensure that the provision of rural transport services is mainstreamed as a subsidised public transport service.



The process to establish the 18 TCUs on a phased basis is well advanced with the first TCU, Local Link Kerry, launched on 20 June 2014
We will review and update the regulation of taxis to ensure that taxi services are recognized as a key component of the public transport system and we will provide for a forum for discussion between the regulatory authorities and taxi providers. The Taxi Regulation Act, 2013 was enacted in October 2013. Statutory Instrument No. 163 of 2014 completed the commencement of that Act in April this year with the exception of section 49. The National Transport Authority also introduced new small public service vehicle (SPSV) regulations on 7 April 2014 which introduce new measures provided for under the Act as well as consolidating and replacing the existing SPSV regulations. 
We will legislate to regulate the vehicle clamping industry.  The Vehicle Clamping Bill 2014 was published on June 9 last. The Bill is scheduled to be introduced in the Seanad on July 16 2014. Under this Bill it will be the function of the National Transport Authority to regulate clamping activities and matters relating to appeals.
We will introduce roadside drug testing programmes to combat the problem of driving under the influence of drugs.  Section 11 of the Road Traffic Act 2014 provides for intoxicant impairment testing which will replace section 11 of the Road Traffic Act 2010.  These non-technological tests will assist the Gardaí in forming the opinion that a driver is under the influence of an intoxicant and will form part of the evidence, should a court case ensue.  It is expected that section 11 will be commenced shortly.



A working group chaired by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety (MBRS) and with representation from An Garda Síochána and the Department was established last year to consider the scientific, operational, legislative, resource and cost issues with regard to the introduction of roadside chemical testing for drugs. The MBRS is currently finalising detailed specifications for the oral fluid roadside testing devices and expects to issue the invitation to tender for the devices later this year.It is also setting up a laboratory to test the devices. Legislation to provide for the use of such devices is currently being drafted in consultation with relevant agencies and bodies and will form part of the Road Traffic Bill to be introduced later this year.
We will continue to invest in the National Cycle Policy and we will look to extend the Dublin Bikes Scheme across the wider Dublin area and to other cities and integrate the scheme much more effectively with public transport links.  Strategic investment in sustainable travel under key programmes has been continued with on-going support for smarter travel investment committed under a 5 year multi-annual budget of €65 million. .



Works on cycling infrastructure in 13 towns were completed under the 2012/2013 Active Travel Towns programme.  9 towns were selected under a second round of funding awarded in April 2014 in respect of the period 2014-2016.



A total of 15 projects were also funded and completed under the National Cycle Network Funding Programme 2012/2013. A further 3 projects shared in funding of €6.3 million under the second tranche of NCN funding for the years 2014-2016.

11 cycling projects were selected to share in the €10 million set aside for the development of greenways from the recently announced €200 million Government Stimulus Package for Infrastructure Development.



The public bike  schemes  will be launched to the public  in Cork, Limerick and Galway in Autumn 2014



Construction of the expansion of the dublinbikes scheme is currently on-going with several of the additional bike stations completed and operational.  It is expected that all of the additional stations will be completed by summer of this year, which will result in the overall provision of 102 dublinbikes stations, 1,500 bikes and a total of circa 3,000 cycle stands under the full dublinbikes scheme.  Coca cola was announced as the new sponsor for the Dublin Bikes in June 2014.
Safety at sea and decent working conditions must underpin the development of the fisheries sector. We will explore the provision of an emergency towing vessel for the Coast Guard. A review study on the necessity for an Emergency Towing Vessel, and the associated risks and possible strategies that may be available to the State was undertaken and its summary findings were presented to Government on 10 July 2013.  In the current economic climate and also having regard to the long time frame for developing consensus on a suitable multi-purpose offshore patrol vessel (M-OPV) for the future, it was decided that the focus for the next few years will be on improving pollution and accident prevention, through the range of measures outlined in the Action Plan.

The Work in Fishing Convention 2007 sets standards to protect workers in the fishing sector.  The Department is working on developing the legislative basis to enable Ireland to ratify the Convention and implement it nationally. The Department has also engaged with the Federation of Irish Fishermen on the development of a new logbook, which is assisting the industry in complying with the requirements of the Convention, when it enters into force.

The Irish Maritime Administration of the Department is preparing a new Maritime Safety Strategy which will focus on reducing the number of deaths and injuries in the recreational craft, fishing, passenger and cargo vessel sectors. The development of the Strategy is being informed by a consultation process in the period June to August 2014 designed to engage a range of stakeholders and the general public.  Publication of the new Strategy is planned for Q4 2014.

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