I was glad the Government and my Department were able to reduce public transport fares for everyone in this country by 20% and for 50% for young people.

I was glad this Government was able to help out the licensed hauliers with our emergency support scheme when we gave each haulier a payment of €100 per week for eight weeks.

That was important at the time when prices were high.

I was proud to be part of a Government that has been recognised by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and many others as having introduced budgets that protected the vulnerable while retaining economic security for all. That is not common among European governments but this Government did it. I am glad and proud to be part of a Government that changed the rules around excise duties, petrol and diesel-----

-----and the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy.

We maintained the revenue diesel rebate scheme to recognise that we were in difficult times. We will defer the increase even though it was proposed to provide for the cost of inflation, particularly in road maintenance and operations, which are important. We must maintain that service for the Irish public and we will do that. That money will not come from cuts to the road maintenance budget because it is important we keep maintaining the roads rather than coming back later. It is cheaper that way. Nor will it be ta…

Yes.

I might share some of my time with Deputy Ó Cuív.

Má thagann sé, mar a dúirt an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. The Government will not oppose this motion because we agree with the central argument set out in Deputy Connolly's speech. The OECD report she refers to is exactly right in that it is system change we need, rather than just tinkering with measures within it. This is a useful opportunity to consider that and to consider how it might apply in Galway if we take it as an example. On decarbonisation, we have to halve our emissions in this decade and reach net zero i…

BusConnects Cork is the NTA's plan for the development and delivery of a sustainable, high-quality bus system for the Cork metropolitan area. The NTA is developing plans to introduce 12 new sustainable transport corridors, which will encompass 93 km of bus lanes and 112 km of cycle lanes across the city. Investing in a sustainable future for Cork is vital for supporting the city's growth over the coming two decades. Following two earlier rounds of public consultation, the NTA launched its new design for the Cork me…

I agree with the Deputy about the benefits for Cork in terms of getting a really good bus service. This is challenging because it requires giving road space and priority for buses at junctions. I know there is a lot of concern in Cork, particularly around whether any trees or front gardens are affected. That became clear during the consultation process. The experience of going through a similar process in Dublin may steer us in the direction of giving even stronger priority for buses within the existing road networ…

We cannot ignore European law. I am just stating what is obvious and what exists. As a member of the EU, we exist within the European legal system. I do not disagree with the Deputy's comments about the real problems we have seen in Dublin recently for all the bus companies in terms of getting drivers and getting service reliability. We have to address that. It was a good start when the companies apologised to the Oireachtas committee yesterday. I would have to say on comparing Cork and Dublin, and one never does t…

No. First and foremost it is the public I am thinking of. We need to get that really high-quality service. The biggest problem we have is political and public support locally for the changes to make that happen. If we do not get that right, we will be stuck in the current system. Cork does not have a good enough bus service, and upper Glanmire, Waterfall and Kerry Pike do not get bus services. They will come in with this new system.

It is clear that the scale of the challenge we face in decarbonising transport, as highlighted in this OECD report, will require a transformative level of behavioural and systems change. I was pleased to participate at the Climate Change Advisory Council's and OECD team's launch event on 5 October, alongside the new environmental director at the OECD and the chair of the advisory council. My Department engaged collaboratively with the OECD team over the past year in the preparation of its review. The perspective in…

I agree with the Deputy that part of this transformation has to be the development of rail services in our cities of Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick to be counterbalances to the excessive reliance on development on the east coast and in the Dublin region. It is important that we invest in the rail services of those cities so that they have centres of scale that can be counterweights to the greater Dublin area. I agree with that. That is why, yesterday, Government announced a significant and important decision …

I do not disagree with the Deputy. There is huge potential in the services he mentioned. The allocation of those ICR carriages is a matter which Iarnród Éireann is going to have to decide on an operational basis. It is best placed to see where the growth is. What is interesting, and what I hear from the company, is that since we as a Government introduced a 50% reduction in fares for those under 24 and a 20% reduction for all passengers, there has been a massive increase in demand, particularly for the rail service…

I am intervening in putting the funding into public transport, reducing fares and in encouraging the development of Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick, in particular, as our priorities for investment in transport.

Local authorities are the statutory road authorities responsible for the maintenance and improvement of regional and local roads, together with traffic management, within their functional area. My Department provides grant assistance to local authorities under the regional and local road grant programme for a range of targeted programmes, including the safety improvement programme. Applications are sought each year from local authorities under this programme for consideration for funding in the subsequent year. In …

The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and I were there recently at a good Coast Guard event. I know the character of the road. I see the need for measures to be taken. Just to provide details which might be useful for the Deputy in his own work on this issue, there are a number of grant headings under the safety improvement programme. One is for works costing less than €200,000 and there is a specific grant programme for works costing in excess of €200,000 and less than €5 million. It is open to local authorities…

I understand that Louth County Council has indicated that redevelopment is planned for the Bush Post Primary School. The council is awaiting clarity on the detail of the public road interface. It will be a matter for the council to seek funding under the appropriate grant programme in that regard, should it wish to do so. It seems that the right thing to do would be to try to manage the traffic issue when the school is being redeveloped. Traffic is an issue on that entire road. It is a wide road on which vehicles t…