Results 541-560 of 1,054,087 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:John Carty OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Eamon Ryan OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Alan Farrell) in 'Committee meetings'

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We should avoid anything that would return all those commuters to the roads. We are going to put the first battery-electric trains into Drogheda and run them south along the northern commuter line. It would hobble the commuter and Enterprise services to provide an airport link, particularly in the absence of all those capacity improvements. We have an alternative. The decision involves...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Alan Farrell: That illustrates why the spur to the airport will not work. It is not just about the capacity the Minister mentioned or project 4 north, to four-track that line, which we are allegedly getting in the new year. If the Senator and I are both still here, that will make for a fascinating read. It is all about capacity. There have been so many conversations about metro on radio, as I am sure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Alan Farrell: The point is that Luas is great to have but it will not work for the airport or Swords.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Alan Farrell: It does not have the capacity. The northern commuter line is already jammed, as we saw and the Minister alluded to. As I said, it is my specialist subject.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Deputy for his friendship as well. We have always got on well. We have disagreed sometimes on various issues, but I have always found him to be most respectful and collegial. On investment in transport, public transport and roads, maybe I will bring them together. I have a perspective looking forward, rather than back to 2023, that the country has never had a more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Senator. As he said, we have a long friendship through politics and beyond. I will go very local as a way of making a point. The Senator knows these roads very well as do I. If a person is coming from Goatstown, from the Goat Grill into town and is going down Goatstown Road on to Clonskeagh Road and then to Sandford Road and the junction by Eglinton Road. There are three...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It was quite tight and narrow and you could not overtake. You would be at quite a high speed going into town, as it is downhill. There were many of those wands and bollards. I thought there was a lot going on and it was not ideal. We found that out and a lesson was learned from that. If we look at the section from the mosque down to Clonskeagh Bridge, that is the design that is going to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It is a nice surface. It is wide enough and a cyclist needs width. There are a couple of pinch points where they compromised too much but by and large, it is a very good-quality lane. It is comfortable and safe and not expensive, as it is a standard surface treatment. The third piece - and we need to go on into town and to do a lot more, more quickly - to go back, I was involved in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It can only be a 9 m wide road. I remember speaking to the engineer and asking whether we could reduce it to one lane each. He said that was no problem. All we are doing with that is storing cars. They are not moving, which means there is no space for anything else. It completely killed the cycling capability. Cyclists had to go on the footpath, there was literally no space. What we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes. We need to ramp up and we are going to ramp up the deployment of those cameras. We can use that technology in a way where we might have a camera box but rotate the actual camera between different boxes to give the signal to improved behaviour. Cameras within vehicles have a role. Certainly, cameras on buses are critical in tackling antisocial behaviour and in respect of any incidents...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That is a different issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes, I would be able to check what my son is doing as he is driving. With that technology, having insurance options whereby good, safe driving practice is guaranteed to be rewarded-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: -----with better insurance premiums might be one of the ways to go.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We are talking very local here. The Senator is talking about my constituency, which I can use as an example. First, however, I go back to what he said about the Stillorgan QBC, the introduction of which I was involved in as a member of the Dublin transport advisory committee and its QBC committee at the time. The controversy around the proposal was followed by an overnight realisation that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes. The response went from "This is the end of the world" to "Oh my God, this is brilliant". It proved the case. Looking at the route through the lens of today, what we have on the Stillorgan road is not good enough. Getting down to the very local, the question is about what Donnybrook village, for instance, is for. Is it a distributor road for cars into the city centre or is it a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I am fixated on those southern orbital routes because they are a dramatic change and provide a very good-quality service. I am sad in that I like to count the numbers as I watch buses go by. The public flocks to good public transport. I am told the routes are really taking off, with the numbers doing very well. I had a meeting with the board of Dublin Bus two weeks ago. What came out of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Alan Farrell: On that point, I wrote to a constituent today about BusConnects. The issue of speed is absolutely critical. In Swords, the current journey time to the city centre is 71 minutes. I am not sure whether that figure is from the CSO or the Department. Without intervention, it will rise to 80 minutes. With the BusConnects projects coming on stream under the A spine, the proposal is to reduce...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Alan Farrell: That is no problem. In relation to MetroLink. It is a project that does not impact just my constituency. The Minister and I have a lot in common in relation to public transport matters, one of which is Metrolink. I am a huge advocate for the delivery of that project, but there is undoubtedly extraordinary cynicism in the public domain. When I am confronted by people who say “Oh,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I will answer by going back to what the Cathaoirleach said that it would be very good to the BusConnects plan, the network and corridors – it is a big complex project – concluded by the end of this decade. I agree with him. For where we are now, that would be a great outcome and we should make sure it happens but that is not satisfactory because it started in 2016 or 2017, so...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Service Performance Report 2023: Department of Transport (6 Nov 2024)

Alan Farrell: I accept the Minister’s point. It is outside of our control. There is also the injunction relating to or the judicial review of the airport passenger cap, which I was going to raise later. That is a good example of the courts dealing with something relatively quickly. It only took a few weeks, as far as I know. The decision was made this week. Regardless of one’s view of...