There have been plans in recent years to do with the national development plan, the national spatial strategy and so on. What a lot of them have in common is the prediction that Cork is likely to be fastest growing urban area in the State over the course of the next 15 to 20 years. For that to happen and for Cork to reach its fullest potential, we know that the infrastructure is needed. More than that, we know that it cannot simply be putting more cars on the road. Public transport is going to be crucially important in Cork. What Cork needs is more of the key personnel on the ground. It is crucially important that we have these national organisations but we need TII, NTA and Irish Rail people on the ground all the time from a national delivery point of view. One of the major public transport projects we are looking is the Cork Luas. The timelines are not anywhere near ambitious enough. It would be a huge mistake to look at only one route at the outset because it is very likely that there will be a need for a north-south line linking up heavily trafficked and heavily populated areas, such as Carrigaline and Douglas, through the city centre and through to parts of the northside. If it is not mapped out now and the process begun - we know it will not happen overnight - then it will be in 20 years. In relation to BusConnects, which is another important part in ensuring that public transport for Cork is fit for the 21st century, there is a legislative piece to this. Some of it is capital and some of it is engineering but there is a legislative piece. At the minute, it is not possible to remotely enforce traffic infringements, that is, we are going to have these bus gates that prevent people going back and forth from either side of them to facilitate bus prioritisation and to assist the bus in being the fastest vehicle. Unfortunately, unless we have digital remote enforcement of that, it will not work. People are going to go through the bus gates and it will snare up traffic. Legislation is needed to do this. That is something that would be cheap, easy and quick to do but this Government needs to do it to ensure that BusConnects can succeed.

Sentiment score: 0.07