I understand the Minister for Transport raised the issue of congestion charges at Cabinet this morning. Congestion in our towns and cities needs to be tackled. We need more pedestrianised streets and car-free zones. We need free public transport, which the Government is opposing, but we do not need congestion charges, which are a bad idea on at least two fronts. First, they penalise ordinary people trying to get to work and people struggling with the burdens of a cost-of-living crisis. Second, they alienate the general public from the climate agenda that needs to be embraced if there is to be a future for the next generations. What is the Taoiseach’s position on congestion charges? Does he appreciate the scale of public opposition which will emerge should the Government decide to go down this road?

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has been clear on this on a number of occasions and I will be very clear on it too. There is no proposal from this Government to introduce congestion charges. At some point down the line when the metro is picking up people at Dublin Airport, the DART to Dublin 15 and Kildare is up and running, Cork metropolitan transport is operating, all vehicles are electric-----

No word about Kerry.

-----and there are no taxes coming in from petrol and diesel, perhaps there will be a case for congestion charges, but certainly not under this Government and not in the foreseeable future. I am happy to be clear on that and I say that as somebody who represents a commuter constituency.

The Minister has made clear that we are doing a public consultation on how to achieve what we want to achieve when it comes to emissions, which is to reduce the number of journeys by car by about 20% and reduce emissions by about 50% by the end of the decade. We have to consider all options in that context. The main ones will be road space reallocation and also making public transport cheaper and more affordable. We have done that and that is why more people are using it.