Eamon Ryan

It's not good for our health outcomes.

It's not good for the environment.

It's not the way modern cities are going.

Like just at the moment when cities across the world are realising you can't go on a car-based city development, our government is going back all in on a car-based transport system.

They're building the road first.

And when you build the road first, it kills the case for the Galway Lewis.

I was involved, long involvement to this, going back in the late 90s.

I remember I was involved in the Dublin Transportation Advisory Committee.

And we had a platform for change.

It was the big plan for the future of Dublin.

And I'll never forget, the main engineers, the main planners came in and said, OK, here are the various projects, metro, widening the M50.

Whatever you do, they said, do the public transport first or else the city will develop along the road.

What did the government do then?

It did the roads first and never built the public transport.

And what do we have?

A Dublin that is defined by the M50 and it doesn't work.

It doesn't work for the motorists because you can't tell it's going to be a half-hour journey or a three-hour journey if there's an accident on the carriageway, you're goosed.

And it's the problem is the next road up for government, they're going to go ahead with the Galway Bypass, which is guaranteeing a sprawled Galway.

Then they want to build a motorway from Cork to Limerick, Limerick to Cork.

It comes to a dead end in Cork city centre in the village of Blackpool.