I will move to a different issue. I congratulate the Taoiseach and his Ministers on arriving to work in the Dáil today clean and dry at a time when thousands of Dubliners are out there walking through the rain to work. Some years ago, at the beginning of November 2005, there was an extraordinary Government media blitz when the Taoiseach and an array of Ministers set out the plan for Transport 21. We were told this plan would modernise Ireland and all its major cities with regard to public transport.

Our young people have travelled the world and admired transport systems such as subways in the United States or the Far East, trams in Bordeaux or the underground in Lisbon.

There is the Luas in Dublin.

Those people were to come home and find, in the space of five or six years from 2005, public transport transformed in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. Here we are in November 2007, it is a rainy day out there and many women like me are having a bad hair day because there is no public transport.

The Deputy said it.

The Government is to blame for the rain now.

Deputy Burton, without interruption.

Most people out there are not interested in a jet or a yacht, they would just like to see buses and trains and more Luas trams.

What has happened to the plan? The Minister for Transport announced the extension of the Tallaght Luas line to Citywest is to be put back. The Connolly to the Docklands Luas extension is essential to connect up the new Docklands station. I was there when the Taoiseach opened the station; it is lovely, but there is no connection. Such a connection is to be put back because of technical difficulties.

We are being told the proposed new Luas lines, not to mention the metro to the airport, are experiencing difficulties. All the completion dates are going back by one to three years, slowly but surely. The Cork to Midleton commuter rail service has gone back by a year. Apparently technical problems are holding up the Limerick southern ring road. Even the Portlaoise train depot, which was to be built and available around now, is still in mañana land.

Who in Government is competently in charge of delivering the public transport this country needs and deserves to get on with doing its business? Does the Taoiseach believe the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, is up to the job? Has the thought crossed the Taoiseach's mind that the Minister may need the support of his Cabinet colleagues and that of the Taoiseach himself to deliver these projects?

Deputy Burton is well over her time.

Where is the Government on the public transport issue?

Transport 21 is thankfully going extremely well.

Where is the Leitrim to Sligo line?

Everything is rosy in the garden.

We took delivery of 100 buses this year and 50 have been introduced into service. As part of that process of introducing the balance of 50 buses, we now wish to enhance the services to existing routes from Ballymun to Ballybrack, and introduce a new route, the 128, the north fringe buses going through Baldoyle, the Malahide road and Fairview.

Deputy Burton asked about the Luas I promised. It opened about three years ago and 30 million people are travelling on it.

Hear, hear.

That was three years late as well.

There are seven new Luas projects in Transport 21. The construction of the line to the docks is well under way, as is the Cherrywood extension. The rail lines in Kildare and upgrading of stations in some cases is under way.

The overcrowded trains with no extra carriages.

There are two metro lines, one going through the airport and Swords and the other going west. They are both at different stages of development. The engineering and planning work for the underground station at St. Stephen's Green integrating the metro and Luas is under way. The DART extensions in Dublin and the track of the Kildare route is under way.

Most road programmes are well ahead of schedule.

What about outside Dublin?

In the Deputy's end of the bailiwick, the Liffey Valley junction will be finished for Christmas, way ahead of schedule.

It will be like Disneyland.

The main junction at the Red Cow will be finished next Christmas, about a year ahead of schedule.

Is it Christmas toys the Taoiseach is talking about?

That is ahead of schedule.

Some of the main infrastructural roads, such as the Limerick to Nenagh route, are well ahead of schedule. The project from Tyrrellspass to Athlone will be opened in the new year and work is under way on the Ballinasloe to Athlone route. The third contract to bring it all the way from Galway to Dublin, the Galway to Athlone-side of Ballinasloe route, is also under way. Work on 60 km of road to Cork is well advanced.

Work on the route to Waterford has been a bit slower but it is now under way. It is divided into three contracts. There is one going to Carlow, which is almost finished, as well as the other two. Should I continue?

The Taoiseach is great fun, he is great gas.

My question concerned public transport. I would be the first to acknowledge the National Roads Authority seems to have finally got its act together. The changes by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, regarding funding procedures have helped. Not everyone wants to or can drive a car into Dublin city centre, Limerick, Cork or Galway.

If we want to do our business as a modern economy, where is the public transport? The integrated signalling for the Liffey junction line is still years away, and in taking the train from Maynooth to Connolly station, one finds the locals fondly call it "The Calcutta Express" because people are jammed on trains and there is such a lack of trains.

The Taoiseach mentioned an extra 100 buses. How many of those buses are in service and how many of those are replacements for clapped-out buses which were not replaced for about ten years? How much additional resourcing are we getting? People want to use public transport but it is impossible to do business or go to a job if reliable public transport is not available.

Where is the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, on all this? He gave us flights of fancy on electronic voting and so on. Is he thinking away in some ivory tower? We want public transport now. Has the Taoiseach confidence in the Minister's capacity to deliver? He has already announced to my colleague, Deputy Tommy Broughan, that eight out of 12 of the public transport projects in Transport 21 have had their completion dates pushed back by at least one year. Is the Taoiseach aware of this and does he continue to have confidence in this Minister?

I apologise to the Deputy if I did not mention the public transport end of the issue. There are more than 1,100 new buses at Dublin Bus, including 100 new buses delivered recently. The dispute centres on 50 of these buses being used on the Ballymun to Blackrock route and the introduction of the new north fringe route taking in Baldoyle, the Malahide road, Fairview, the city centre and Rathmines. I wish the chairman of the Labour Court and both sets of negotiators well this morning. I hope they can resolve these issues because it is a wet morning and 60,000 commuters have had to make alternative arrangements.

They are walking.

I hope the dispute can be resolved. It has been before the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission and a decision was made by the Labour Court which normally people would be honour-bound to accept. I understand that sometimes that does not happen. In this case the management went through arbitration and the full conciliation process in the Labour Relations Commission. Management went to the Labour Court, where it won its case, and the workers decided to strike. That is the position and they must resolve it. I hope in the interests of the company and the jobs both sides can resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Bus Éireann has over 600 new buses and Irish Rail will accept delivery of 183 new rail cars in the next few years. Our rail fleet will then be the youngest in Europe.

It is also the smallest in Europe.

There are hourly trains to Cork, as opposed to the twice daily service ten years ago. We are extending services on other routes and I hope people use those trains as originally they were not running because of a lack of use. The Tánaiste and Minister for Finance is giving a huge amount of resources — €34.5 billion — to help and much of that will be going to public transport so people commute on it.

With Transport 21 and the western rail corridor, the new commuter services to Galway coming on stream and work on inter-urban roads under way, the Minister for Transport, the NRA and the other agencies are everyday making further improvements.