On Monday the Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning that air quality in Dublin had breached health limits owing to traffic, causing asthma among children and heart and lung conditions among the people of the city. That is not a surprise. Delegates from all over the world came to the recent Velo-city conference and could not believe how shocking the traffic management system in the city centre was. On Monday the first part of the much heralded Cork sustainable transport system was shot down when Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voted against a bus priority improvement measure on Wilton Road. The first part of what was supposedly the new Luas line in Cork is now dead in the water. We face gridlock costs of €2 billion a year under the Government's transport policies. The Government has 51 major national road and motorway projects on the go. They are being built or planned, but not a single public transport project is at the same phase.

The EPA stated in June that, with existing measures and measures included in the Government's national development plan, transport emissions were due to rise by 11% by 2030. We face fines of hundreds of millions of euro a year for the failure to cut them. On 13 June the House voted on a motion that was moved by the Social Democrats and amended by the Green Party which called on the Government to "revise the NDP to ensure the achievement of the interim 2030 emissions reductions target and subsequently a net zero emissions economy by 2050". The Taoiseach's party has been playing politics with it. The handbags between him and Deputy Micheál Martin last week concerned this issue. The Taoiseach said Fianna Fáil wanted to cut the roads programme. Disappointedly, Fianna Fáil replied by stating it had not voted in that way on 13 June and was just talking about overruns on the national children's hospital project, but it did vote in that way. The House approved the motion to revise the national development plan to start to make it climate-ready and to start making a change.

The Government's climate action plan has nothing to state on transport, other than promising to turn every diesel or petrol car into an electric vehicle. Every environmental expert of note says this is not good enough. It will not work and will leave us stuck with gridlock and the inefficient and unsustainable system that is killing the economy as well as our society. The question is this. What will it take for Fine Gael to admit that its treasured and much promoted Project Ireland 2040 and national development plan are not fit for purpose? The Government cannot be taken seriously on climate change if it insists on sticking to every one of the road projects and not moving an inch to change the national development plan. It has to change. It has to go. The people of this city are choking. The people of Cork are now guaranteed gridlock for the next while because the Taoiseach's party will not support a public transport measure. What is going to change?

I thank the Deputy. Project Ireland 2040 is not just about climate action. It is also about new schools, new sports facilities and more homes. Climate action is really important, but other things like health and housing are important, too. When people oppose Project Ireland 2040, they should be specific about what projects they oppose. Is it the housing projects, the health projects, the education projects or the sports capital programme?

It is a great work of fiction.

I appreciate that Deputy Eamon Ryan has been straight up.

It is not going to happen.

His objection is to the roads programme. I disagree with him. If road maintenance and restoration are excluded from project Ireland 2040, the split in new projects is actually two to one in favour of public transport over new road projects. We need to retain and restore roads, particularly in rural Ireland. The new road projects included in the plan are very much needed, for example, the N20 which connects Cork and Limerick as part of the Atlantic economic corridor. Other projects are bypasses that are needed and for which people have been awaiting for a very long time. I refer to places such as Ardee and Virginia.

I refer to Dunkettle.

They are needed.

Steady now.

We need a roundabout.

I refer also to Dunkettle and the N4 to Sligo. A two-to-one split is about right. I appreciate that Deputy Eamon Ryan sees things differently and would have a much smaller roads programme. Looking at the projects, however, I know why they are included. Another really important one is the outer ring road in Galway. I do not think we should cancel the roads programme altogether, or reprofile or review it as others have suggested.

On air quality, I live in this city, very near to the M50. Believe me, air quality is something in which I have a real interest. It is something we will need to tackle and work on. It is not quite the case that the nitrous oxide limits have been breached, but they are heading there. It is good that the EPA came out early and gave us that warning. The Dublin local authorities will be required under European law to produce an action plan to deal with them. Central government will support them, but I am conscious of the results of the local elections. Generally, the Dublin local authorities are now governed by a coalition involving Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

I thought Fine Gael had won them. Was that not included in the Fine Gael press release?

There is a huge opportunity for Deputy Eamon Ryan's party to show that the mandate and good vote it received actually matters, and not waste any time in making sure the councils it now controls will put the action plans together. Central government will support it.