Sinn Féin TD Ann Graves took aim at her Dublin Fingal East stablemate, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, over Ireland’s shortcomings in public transport.
Speaking in the Dáil last week, Graves said that Ireland has “long-standing deficits” in public transport.
The Dublin Fingal East TD said that her constituents are dependent on car use, which stems from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael “treating public transport as an afterthought.”
New statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that 76% of Irish citizens have a dependency on car use, and that Ireland’s transport system is structurally designed to accommodate cars.
Graves said that the statistics did not surprise her.
“In Dublin Fingal East, there are huge residential developments with no proper infrastructure. No schools, no health care, no transport. 58% of short journeys are still made by car. This is a major issue in Fingal.
“There are huge housing estates with no reliable or accessible transport. Estates in Knocksedan and Kinsealy are left without footpaths, let alone public transport to schools.”
“Public transport must be central to any future developments in Fingal East. When I first moved to Swords, the public was promised that the Metrolink was soon to follow. 35 years later, almost half a billion euros and nothing has happened,” she said.
While the government has made some progress in getting shovels on the ground on Metrolink, Graves said that the works on the R132, to facilitate building of the Metrolink, has led to traffic headaches in the area.
She said that as a result of the works on the R132, traffic coming in and out of Swords is at a “standstill.”
Graves told the Dáil, “a carer from Balbriggan contacted my office. She is finding it near impossible to make her journey and get to her clients in Swords because of the chaos that is on the R132 and other mismanaged works done at the same time; there is no management plan in place.”
“Without a radical shift in transport policy, communities right across Fingal East will continue to be forgotten about,” she said.
The Sinn Féin TD said that the Metrolink is needed, but warned that it must not become another National Children’s Hospital.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent in May, Minister O’Brien was adamant that the Metrolink was not going to become another runaway spending project like the National Children’s Hospital.
Speaking in the Dáil this week, the Minister for Transport said that NDP Exchequer will spend €24.3 billion on transport up to 2030, with the Minister noting “that is about €1 in every €4 we will be investing between now and the end of the decade.”