Cork Luas? Greens promise to use Apple tax money on transport projects
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The Green Party has promised to use half of the €14bn Apple tax money on major public transport projects across Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
A further €3bn will be allocated to public transport, which will include a strengthening of local bus services, bringing the total spend to €10bn.
Launching the party’s manifesto, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said his party would ensure the delivery of large projects including the Cork Luas, the Western Rail Corridor and the Limerick Metropolitan Rail within the lifetime of the next government.
“I think it's important to say that when we came into government in 2020 no work had been done on the big public transport programmes. There was nothing ready to go, and that's what the aim and focus has been on for the last four and a half years," he said, before adding that the next four years would be about rolling out these projects.
As well as investing in trains and bus routes, the Green Party has promised to invest €500m a year in walking and cycling infrastructure.
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The party would also appoint a new junior minister for regional cities.
“I think fundamentally, we know we need to see a continued growth of housing across our country, but we believe it is really important that we are making our regional cities hubs in terms of more housing, more industry, more commercial growth, and we want to do a lot of that through transport-led housing and planning,” Mr O’Gorman said.
The party also has plans to establish a new asylum and integration agency for Ireland, an area Mr O’Gorman had responsibility for in the outgoing government as Integration Minister.
He said it is important that there is a “dedicated arm of government” that has responsibility for building and securing accommodation as well as rapidly processing the applications of international protection applicants.
“Since we've seen the increased numbers of people seeking international protection here, I've made the case for an agency, we didn't have support from the other parties in government in terms of that particular development. We're putting that in for a manifesto now.”
However, he said the agency would be shared between the Departments of Justice and Children.
Mr O’Gorman said he does not agree with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who said moving Integration into the Department of Children has not worked.
Among the proposals in the pre-election document are promises to:
- Deliver 15,000 state-backed affordable/cost rental homes and 12,000 social homes.
- Extend the tax deduction for retrofitting works on rental properties beyond 2025 and increase it from €10,000 to €30,000.
- Extend leave for parents to make sure that combined the various supports cover the first year of a child’s life.
- Allocate €150m from the Climate and Nature Fund for measures on public lands such as national parks and nature reserves. A further €200m will be allocated to capital measures on private land.
- Plant trees on 8,000 hectares of land each year.
- Sell more AIB shares and use the proceeds to fund Eirgrid. This will bring down energy bills.
- Develop 200 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2040 to make Ireland a global leader in clean energy.
- Impose a tax on business-class flights which would raise around €105m.
Asked about the Green Party’s time in government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Mr O’Gorman said:
“There were often conflicts, but we resolved those conflicts, and I think that's ultimately what the success of this government has been. We were able to take different policy perspectives based around our programme for government and implement them in a way that provided stability.”