Mr. Eamon Ryan:
I move: “That the Bill be now read a Second Time.”
I wish to share my time with Deputies Boyle, Crowe, Connolly and Finian McGrath.
An Cheann Comhairle
:That is agreed.
Mr. Eamon Ryan:
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his assistance in the publication of this Bill which we are keen to see before the House. Its purpose is to provide for the better integration of transport planning as between public and road transport and also to provide for better coherence between our planning and transport policies. That is the central objective and aim of the Bill.
I will review some key aspects of our expenditure on roads and public transport plans and deal with some of the planning aspects dealt with in the Bill. My colleague, Deputy Cuffe, will speak on the planning issue tomorrow evening. Another colleague, Deputy Boyle, will address some of the financial aspects of our infrastructural expenditure in the transport area.
As the Bill clearly outlines, the new authority would replace the existing National Roads Authority and the National Rail Procurement Agency. The National Roads Authority needs urgent review. Many Deputies are concerned about the lack of accountability within it. I would be keen to hear from Deputies who have proposed amendments on how it could be improved. The main aspects of the Bill relate to strategic planning of transport and the lack of a strategic policy within the NRA, particularly the lack of strategic connections in the overall transport area. This lack of strategic planning became very clear to me at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport when the current chairman of the NRA, Mr. Michael Tobin said: ?Our function in law has a narrow focus. We are expected to oversee the improvement and maintenance of national roads. That is our sole function. ???
That is not good enough. We cannot spend ?3 billion per year on national roads without having a more strategic analysis. The only strategic analysis done was undertaken in 1998 when the NRA published the most extensive review of our roads needs in the national roads needs study which set out plans for the following 20 years.
The report came out with a firm recommendation that we should improve the intertown sections of the existing primary road network and provide bypasses to remove the worst urban gridlock black spots. The Government acted against this advice on the basis of no known analysis or public discussion. I was involved from an early stage in public consultations. The Government came up with a completely different plan to provide 800 kilometres of new motorways of dual carriageway grade in addition to the existing primary road network. When Mr. Tobin was asked about this he said: ?We made our input but the Government obviously listened to other bodies that had an interest in the matter. I suspect these bodies included IDA Ireland and perhaps the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland.??? It is deeply disturbing that the NRA, which is responsible for the largest capital investment project in the State, was not listened to when it came to the development of the road system. A roads project originally costed at ?7 billion is now estimated at approximately ?20 billion. This might have been acceptable three or four years ago at the height of the boom when money was no object but we are in a very different financial situation now. We must carry out a fundamental review of the road and transport policies the Government is pursuing. It seems incredible that at a time of great fiscal restraint we are proposing that, with an existing road network that can carry 20,000 passenger cars per day in many instances, we should build an additional road beside that network to carry an additional 50,000 to 55,000 vehicles per day. The only authority with expertise in the area has predicted that in 20 years’ time we will not need such capacity. Our roads programme capital budget is two and a half times the capital budget for health and will provide road capacity two and a half times the capacity we actually need in many locations, even if one projects a 220% increase in vehicular traffic over 20 years, which the NRA did for its national roads needs survey. That does not make sense. A review is required, as is a proper structure for carrying out such a review. My argument and that of the Bill is that the NRA will be responsible for this.
The Government commissioned Fitzpatricks Associates to carry out an economic analysis of the national roads programme. Its work was very good but was hampered by the fact that its terms of reference precluded it from examining issues outside its terms of reference – to address the topics “principally from the programme management and delivery” perspective. Although it looked at some of the socio-economic issues associated with roads, it did not make a strategic analysis as to whether we needed the roads programme the Government came up with.
Other economists and transport experts are not similarly constrained. I find it hard to meet a transport expert who does not agree with the Green Party that the roads programme is out of scale and unnecessary. Writing in the current issue of Irish Banking Review on the public investment programme and the NDP roads programme, Professor John Fitzgerald of the ESRI says: “It does not appear that these additions have been properly justified and the additional expenditure that they will require may not be warranted”.
Despite its lack of strategic analysis the Fitzpatricks report recognises a fundamental problem – that in current budgetary circumstances we cannot fund the current roads programme before the NRA. Even though we are giving ?1.3 billion to it and have promised the same amount for the next three years, there is still a funding shortfall the Minister will have to address. The Fitzpatricks report suggests we should look at new funding – though I find it hard to believe the Government can argue for yet more money for roads in the current economic climate – or rescheduling projects, the national roads needs study and our priorities. That is what should happen. The NRA is not the appropriate body to do so, however. The new Transport Development Authority, in conjunction with the Minister and his Department, would do this job best.
Nobody would argue that we need the capacity which will be provided. In certain locations near major urban junctions we might need a certain increase in capacity but not on the scale planned by the Government. The major argument in favour of this proposal is the safety argument but the evidence for such dual carriageways providing increased safety is very mixed, depending on which country’s experience one examines. The way the NRA is developing the network, without proper service stations or proper barriers in the centre of motorways, makes it difficult to credit the arguments being made for increased safety. The real crime is the fact that the NRA spends only 1.2% of the roads programme budget on safety measures. That is a real safety problem. If the amount was significantly increased, we might save lives as the Minister wishes without having to build this new superfluous motorway system.
Safety was an issue which drove public transport expenditure. The Minister’s predecessor, then Deputy O’Rourke, spent most of the life of the last Government heralding a new era for rail but in reality very little new public transport capacity was provided. In the main the western, south-western and northern rail lines were made safe, which was welcome, but it was not an increase in public transport capacity. I welcome the arrival of the Railway Procurement Agency, an excellent organisation with some very talented individuals. The skills in the organisation could easily be applied to the NRA. A joint authority would make a lot of economic and administrative sense.
I have a problem with the way the Minister has handled the first RPA report which deals with a metro for Dublin. It has been on his desk for six months. Monthly leaks indicate the metro has gone from a ?2 billion project likely to go ahead to one costing from ?3 billion to ?6 billion which is stymied by the Minister for Finance. The Department of Finance is not the appropriate body to decide on our transport spending. We need independent transport analysis, not only of the metro but also of the strategic rail study which is also sitting on the Minister’s desk for a long time.
The strategic rail study mirrors the NRA’s proposal, according to the leaks, by appearing to suggest we need to concentrate on interurban journeys. The same priority is being suggested for the roads programme but we have to analyse these to determine which will give us the best return which would probably come from investment in short distance urban commuting solutions, for which we would need a proper, independent authority to analyse the merits of one case against the other. That is the reason we have proposed this Bill. I trust other parties and the Government will see the merit in our case.
