What’s mentioned in the General Election manifestos ahead of the election on Friday? IrishCycle.com has looked at funding, public transport projects and fares, and active travel commitments of the political parties, which in the last Dáil had more than one seat.
This overview is designed to inform people more about what parties are promising. Of course, it is highly recommended to factor in what you think is a party’s record and if an individual candidate in your area differs from their party.
The Safe Routes to Schools Programme and LocalLink are examples of very popular measures, so the supporting language used was recorded for both.
Measures should be read in the round — it’s very easy to say to “Expand” or offer extra funding to more popular measures, but if the party is also not committing to expanding active travel or public transport funding, it’s at best robbing Peter to pay Paul.
All of the tables can be read in Google Sheets.
Manifesto in numbers:
Funding:
Support for large public transport projects:
Public transport fares:
Supports for cycling
Enforcement
Links to manifestos and other policies used in the overview:
Further notes:
Word counts are very rough but are given to give an idea of what has the potential to be included — for example, if a party has 2,500+ words related to transport, then it is more likely to mention more projects by name than a party which has fewer than 300 words on transport. For FG, +1,000 words relates to the idea of a new Department of Infrastructure, Climate and Transport; and for the SocDems the extra 1,900 words is in its cycling policy, while Labour’s extra is on its newly published transport policy.
Commitments for a feasibility study for Metro South West is marked in orange because this departs from already-established transport plans, and such moves around MetroLink have already delayed it, and the upgrading of most of the south section of Luas Green Line to Metro standard as has been a long-term objective. Campaign groups have worked against the Green Line upgrade for various reasons, including that it would affect their car access where level crossings would be closed. They have sought an underground route via one of the lowest-density areas of the city with less potential for densification than other areas.
Commitments on Luas in other cities are marked in blue when these are above the projects that already have feasibility projects. Readers are expected to decide on commitments being made above what’s supported by professional backing and also to look at factors such as funding commitments.
The PBP manifesto commits to implement the recommendations of the all island rail review which includes Navan and the western rail corridor. It also supports building more Luas lines in Dublin. Also the €500m for additional bus services would include connecting Ireland services.