The ambassador is very welcome. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation but I do so with a clear warning. Expanding the remit of the NTA cannot mean exporting the same mistakes we have seen in Dublin to the rest of the country. BusConnects promised badly needed transformation, better routes, more frequent services and a modern system but in many cases, this is a far cry from what was actually delivered. Like most projects delivered by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, it was marked by delays, spiralling costs and community frustration. Originally envisaged at about €1 billion, costs ballooned to as much as €4.2 billion. Time deadlines slipped, often local communities felt ignored and in some cases people were left facing longer journey times with fewer services and some uncertainty. The transformation of Ireland’s public transport infrastructure is badly needed. There is no doubt about that, but what occurred during parts of the roll-out of BusConnects does not reflect how to build public confidence in public transport. What happened is part of a wider pattern of announcements without delivery, ambition without execution and spending without control. We have seen massive overruns across project after project. Nearly €500 million has been spent on MetroLink before a shovel has gone into the ground and €50 million was written off in the context of a failed rail IT system. The cost for contactless payments has already spiralled to €269 million. There are 130 electric buses worth over €40 million that have been sitting idle for years because they were purchased before the necessary charging infrastructure was put in place. That is bad planning. The Government has consistently been unable to deliver. These failures are not just in Dublin; they are felt all over the country. I asked some of our local councillors in rural Ireland about the deficits in public transport infrastructure. I discovered that there are still no bus shelters in Lixnaw or near the old Tralee town council building on Princes Quay. There is still no bus stop on the Bracker O’Regan Road either. There seems to be an inconsistency of delivery across various local authorities. For some reason, it appears that some areas are able to erect bus stops without an awful lot of bureaucracy, but that is not the case in every area. The OECD agrees that some systems were structurally designed primarily to accommodate cars. A total of 76% of people rely primarily on cars, which is one of the highest rates in the EU. Some 58% of short journeys of less than 2 km are still made by car because there is no viable alternative. The OECD said that Ireland’s transport system is structurally designed to primarily accommodate cars. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have treated public transport as an afterthought. Throughout the country, there are patchy and infrequent services, limited rail connectivity and entire communities effectively cut off from reliable public transport. None of this is a coincidence. I listened earlier to the debate about the temporary rail platform being constructed in Adare. Nothing permanent is being put in place in Adare in order to expand the rail system on the newly completed track to Foynes. There have been decades of underinvestment and neglect. Rail accounts for less than 3% of Ireland’s transport infrastructure, far below the European average of 8%. Only 3% of the rail lines are electrified compared with the majority in EU systems, and no high-speed rail infrastructure exists. A total of 77% of lines are single track, limiting frequency and capacity. Despite all of the money spent – including sums of €269 million, €40 million and €50 million - people still cannot get a cup of coffee on the Tralee to Dublin train on the direct line. While the Government talks about balanced regional development, the reality is that the situation regarding infrastructure has left places in certain areas of the country, including Kerry, at serious disadvantage when it comes to jobs, infrastructure and quality of life. This Bill matters, but it also involves risk. We need more public transport infrastructure, but expanding into Cork, Limerick and Galway must not mean repeating the same errors on a wider scale.

Sentiment score: -0.10