Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle as ucht a phoist nua. Congratulations on your new post, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I thank the Deputy for his question as I know that this is a matter of interest to him and to many Deputies within the House. I certainly know that by the number of queries that I have received over the past week or so. The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, as the Deputy will be aware, in accordance with th…

Tá am breise ag an Teachta anocht. There is no kite flying on this. This is real money for roads across the country. We announced them and people will see the network of roads. As part of this investment in 2025, just under €48 million is being invested in developing and upgrading this infrastructure through vital strategic projects. The Deputy will be familiar with some of them. These include projects identified for development under the national development plan such as the Tralee northern relief road – I do not …

All of us want to see further improvements in the road network and in particular when we look at regional and local roads. I do not think anyone can dispute the investment for 2025 is very significant. Will it do every regional and local road across the country? Of course it will not. You must have a works programme as well and the capacity to deliver those programmes. That is what I and the Ministers of State, Deputies Canney and Buttimer, in this Government will be focused on. It is for the local authorities to b…

I thank the Deputy for this important question on transport sectoral emissions. My Department's national investment framework for transport in Ireland, NIFTI, sets out modal and intervention hierarchies to achieve transport objectives. One of the four priorities is decarbonisation and as such, the sponsoring agency of any road project must consider any potential positive or negative impacts of a given project in relation to decarbonisation. The sponsor must also demonstrate that a given option is the most environme…

There is a balance to be struck here. I am glad the Deputy mentioned the CCAC and IFAC contribution today which I very much welcome. It does show the challenge in a growing economy. Thankfully we have full employment. Deputy Pa Daly already mentioned his view that there are infrastructural deficits and there are as well. We need to build more roads and we need more investment in rail. We will do that with the refresh of the NDP but the climate action plan is central to all of that. In the past two years we have see…

The Deputy mentioned a number of things. On active travel, earlier this year he will have seen the NTA announcements, with very significant funding. Tomorrow, I will announce additional funding for greenways, improving the permeability between towns and villages. This is a successful programme and we want to expand it, and that is embraced by communities too. In respect of EVs, I am not just going to review the grants; I intend to improve them. We have not concluded the work on that. The Deputy will have seen that …

I am aware of that. I am also aware the Deputy's party has opposed every action we have taken in respect of climate, whether through our climate budgets or the climate action plan. That is a policy position it has, but I think we all understand the need for us to reduce emissions to improve how people travel. The Deputy's question relates specifically to electric vehicles and making them more accessible to rural motorists, something with which I agree. Rural motorists are often in an advantageous position to switch…

As I was saying, the regional and local EV network plan is very important. Departmental officials have been engaging actively with local authorities to develop their own regional charging plans. We are now looking at ranges averaging 400 km, which will cover most daily driving. Most EV charging happens at home. Nevertheless, I agree that we need to improve the EV charging infrastructure throughout the country, and this strategy will focus in particular on our regional areas. I can also confirm that in line with the…

I have just told the Deputy what we are doing, and I did not say that what has happened up to now is unacceptable. I said we need to do more. Anyone will understand that when you are bringing in new infrastructure such as this, you are not going to do it in a year. That is obvious. You have a plan but you also have to know how to pay for it, and I have highlighted the contradiction in the stance of the Deputy's party in respect of investing in areas such as this. It opposed carbon tax. We want to increase grants---…

I will leave that as it is. People will make up their own minds about it. Let us look at the facts. In 2020, the number of available charging points was about 1,700. It was 2,400 as of January 2024, and that will increase further this year, although I do not yet have those numbers. I am very serious about improving the infrastructure throughout the country. We will do that and we are concluding the consultation with the local authorities to identify where. We are serious about doing it and we will do it.

The vast majority of public service obligation bus services are provided by State operators through what are known as direct award contracts. Remaining routes are run by operators awarded a contract following a competitive tendering process. Sometimes those routes are operated by a State operator and sometimes they are operated by a private operator. This mix of contract award processes is in accordance with the relevant EU and Irish regulatory frameworks. The performance of all public transport operators is monito…

The Deputy has the answer, in that a very severe fine was levied. Public transport is not disimproving. We need to ensure punctuality. We have a growing population. There are developments all over the country that need to be serviced by the bus network. This year, €658 million has been provided for the PSO, up from €613 million the year before. We have seen a significant reduction in public transport fares. I will extend free fares to five- to eight-year-olds, a measure brought forward by the previous Minister. We …

There were issues on certain routes in the past few weeks and I publicly stated they were not acceptable. I use this opportunity to restate to bus operators that paying customers - all customers indeed because many do not have to pay now due to the expansion of free travel - expect a reliable services. In many instances, that is exactly what they get. We will continue the investment in our bus fleet throughout the country, in our cities and regions and in rural transport as well. We will continue the investment in …

I am aware of the poor performance issues on certain routes operated by Go-Ahead in the greater Dublin area. I highlighted this myself. It was brought to my attention by many commuters. As the Deputy knows, public transport service obligations are provided by both State and commercial operators under contract with the National Transport Authority. I assure the Deputy that the performance of all these public transport operators is closely monitored by the NTA as part of contractual arrangements in place between it a…

I have impressed on the NTA the real importance of being customer and user focused. A lot of time is spent, and rightly so, on expanding our bus network and investing in infrastructure. However, existing routes need to be supported. I agree with the Deputy. The passenger or customer experience is critical to ensuring other people use public transport. Thankfully, because of the work done by the previous Government and the former Minister, Eamon Ryan, supported by the Deputy, and by me, in Cabinet, we are seeing sig…

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to update him on this. It was a Green Party commitment in its manifesto. It was a Fianna Fáil commitment as well that we have a transport security force and transport police supported by colleagues in the programme for Government. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the regional Independents have agreed that measure, and it is an important step forward that that be done. We are already working on it. We will require legislation. The transport security force will sit under the…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht na ceiste tábhachtaí faoi shábháilteacht phaisinéirí ar iompar poiblí. As he will be acutely aware, antisocial behaviour is a broad societal issue to which public transport is unfortunately not immune. I have witnessed, as the Deputy will have in talking to his constituents, that this is a matter that really does need to be addressed. It is those passengers and staff who regularly use and work within the public transport network who are most directly impacted by any safety o…

I was looking at the previous safety report and I was taken by the fact that 84% of respondents who were asked said that they felt safe on public transport. I am not disputing the numbers but I was quite surprised by that. It depends on the route. I use public transport. I am in the Dublin commuter zone. There are many other things that need to be done. On DART stations, I was pleased to see that there are 576 cameras on the network. There are 110 cab cameras that are monitored in real time at Howth Junction. On tr…

The training to secure a licence for a vehicle such as that is standardised and obviously involves road testing and so on. I have not had any complaints about different driving styles across Bus Átha Cliath, Go-Ahead Ireland or Bus Éireann, but that is obviously the experience the Deputy's constituent had. On safety, Dublin Bus took the bull by the horns in running its pilot programme. We have expanded services. For example, Dublin Bus is running 24-hour buses in the city. I would like to see that expanded further.…

I appreciate the question. The Government’s position on this issue is clear – we look forward to delivering improved transport and an improved transport network for the people of Waterford, and to continue that over the coming years. In the city area, those improvements will be introduced in line with the Waterford metropolitan area transport strategy, which sets out a plan-led, evidence-informed basis to improve active travel, public transport and road networks across the metropolitan area in the years ahead. A ke…