The Taoiseach has insisted the Government is supposed to be “anti-carbon” and not “anti-car” as he ruled out adopting a new strategy to tackle pollution and congestion days before a general election is called.
Simon Harris’s comments came amid apparent heightening tensions between the Green Party and their coalition partners on transport issues.
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman acknowledged there had been “pushback” from government counterparts in respect of a strategy developed by his party colleague Eamon Ryan aimed at tackling congestion.
It recommends a review of current taxes and charges applying to transport.
Mr O’Gorman conceded the plan had met with resistance after he was questioned about a report in the Irish Independent claiming Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil refused to agree to new anti-pollution measures targeting drivers prior to the general election.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail on Friday reported that Fianna Fáil is angry that money left unspent on greenway projects was unable to be diverted to shovel-ready road building schemes due to the Programme for Government’s commitment that spending on public transport would exceed investment in road building schemes by a ratio of two to one.
Mr Harris was asked about the suggested tensions with the Greens on transport issues as he attended an event in Co Laois on Friday.
“I signed up for a Programme for Government that was anti-carbon, not anti-car,” said the Fine Gael leader.
“I think it’s very important that we recognise that there is still a need for cars in this country, and many people will have switched to electric vehicles. They need roads to drive on.
“Our public transport needs good road infrastructure as well.
“This government has neared the end of its time in office. I don’t think the Government has a mandate at this stage to come at the Irish people with a range of new charges and taxes, I’m not in favour of it, and any governments that I’m a part of won’t progress things around tolls and congestion charges.”
He said the “time is not right” as the Government is in the final days before an election.
Mr O’Gorman was asked about the issues as he attended the official opening of a new road junction interchange in Snugborough in Blanchardstown, west Dublin.
He insisted the proposed congestion strategy did not contain new taxes.
“This is a strategy, this isn’t a taxation document,” he said.
“It is focused on delivering better solutions to the congestion we see in our towns and cities.”
He added: “There has been pushback, yes. And there’s been pushback on some other pieces as well that we had proposed in terms of reform of the road strategy where there’s pushback. Look, my view was we work all the way to the end of cabinet, to the end of this government. We continue to bring meaningful proposals forward. That’s what our party has done, that’s what I’m doing across my department.
“I’d no kind of sense that we were going to, you know, down tools two weeks out. So look, we’ll continue to make the case for working all the way to the end of this government and continuing to deliver meaningful proposals.”
Asked if he felt Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were pursuing a strategy to damage the Greens ahead of the election, he replied: “I expect everyone’s elbows are going to be out now over the next couple of weeks, and I think you can see it from the papers today.
“I feel this government has done a lot. It’s been a good government over the last four-and-a-half years, and I think the Greens’ participation in it has made it a better government. And I’ll be making that case on every door.”
He added: “I have no doubt there’ll be clashes across all ways over the next couple of weeks, but the message I’ll be giving to people is if you feel this has been a good government make sure the Greens can be part of it, give us your number one vote.”
Fianna Fáil Finance minister Jack Chambers, who also attended the interchange opening in Blanchardstown, confirmed his party was frustrated at stalled progress on some road building projects.
He said the Snugborough interchange was a good example of new road infrastructure complementing active travel provision.
Mr Chambers added: “There has been a stop-start nature to certain roads projects in this government, which has impeded progress around certain roads projects across the country. And that’s been a point of frustration for Fianna Fáil in government.
“We obviously will set out our proposals in the context of infrastructure delivery over the next five years in the Fianna Fáil manifesto, but we have an ability now as a state, by running surpluses with a new ambition around transport and indeed wider infrastructure delivery, to really ensure that particular regions in our country, in the Midlands and the west of Ireland, for example, can get that uplift in road infrastructure that they’ve waited for many years.
“We also need to drive forward a number of bypasses across the country that have been waiting for many years.”
The minister continued: “I think it’s unfortunate that this debate gets very polarised between road infrastructure or active travel. And we want to make sure the two can work together. I think sometimes the focus on a ratio can affect particular delivery of road projects, and certainly, from a Fianna Fáil perspective, we want to give certainty and capitalisation to infrastructure drivers like Transport Infrastructure Ireland to ensure that the National Development Plan and road infrastructure gets built out over the next number of years.”
On the road building issue, Mr O’Gorman said the current government had spent more on roads that any of its predecessors.
But he said it was also vitally important that money was invested in public transport.
He said the Green Party would be campaigning for 6.5 billion euro of the windfall recently secured from Apple in back taxes to be invested in the public transport budget.
