I cannot answer on behalf of the Minister for Regional Development. The level of sewage discharges in that area needs to be examined. The results of that monitoring will be assessed according to the current guidelines for overflow discharges and improvements. The intention of the current guidelines is to seek improvement, and the Department of the Environment will do so within its remit.

The litter on Newcastle beach and its overall condition are, in the first instance, matters for Newry and Mourne District Council.

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4.

asked the Minister of the Environment if he will make a statement on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

(AQO 720/01)

The European Water Framework Directive came into force on 22 December 2000. It establishes a new, comprehensive system for the protection and improvement of Europe's water environment on the basis of river basin management plans. The aim of the Directive is to achieve a good status for all surface and ground waters throughout the European Union by 2015. It requires the development of a strategic managerial approach based on river basin districts. The provisions of the Directive are to be transposed into the national legislation of member states by the end of 2003. Further steps include an analysis of river basin characteristics, a review of the impact of human activity on surface and ground water, and an economic analysis of water used - all are to be completed by the end of 2004.

Responsibility for the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive in Northern Ireland lies with my Department and its agency, the Environment and Heritage Service. My Department has established a steering group, comprising representatives of the Northern Ireland Departments and agencies that are affected by the Directive, to assist in the process. My Department will publish this spring a first consultation paper on the implementation of the Directive in Northern Ireland. The paper will outline the Directive's provisions, and will invite views on its key issues as they affect Northern Ireland. I look forward to receiving comments on how to implement the Directive in a way that best suits Northern Ireland's needs and circumstances.

I thank the Minister for his complete response. We are all aware of the staffing and resources problems that the Department of the Environment has suffered for several years, and which the Minister has tried to redress over the last couple of years. Can he assure us that he will have the necessary staff and financial resources to implement the necessary legislative change by next year and the necessary administrative changes by the year after, which would ensure that the targets are met and we do not lag behind?

I assure Members of that, in so far as it is possible to do so. I have been successful in the last two Budgets in securing additional resources for the transposition and implementation of EU Directives relating to the environment. When the recruitment process is completed, my Department's environmental policy division will have increased from 34 to 64 staff, while the water quality unit and the Environment and Heritage Service will have grown from 37 to 74 staff. Those staffing increases need to be regarded in the context of the backlog of key Directives to be implemented and transposed, which I inherited from the time of direct rule. Together with the new Directives that have been introduced since devolution, including the Water Framework Directive, and imminent legislation, they create a daunting task for my officials.

In order to meet all the European requirements, I expect to bring some 40 to 50 pieces of environmental legislation before the Assembly over the next few years.

In my experience of the Foyle system - and the Minister will know this, given his experience of the Erne system - river systems do not necessarily recognise political boundaries. What plans is he making to implement the cross-border aspects of the Water Framework Directive?

If a river basin district covers the territory of more than one European member state, the Water Framework Directive requires that that area be identified as an international river basin district. Member states are required to co-operate on the management of water quality in those shared districts through appropriate administrative arrangements.

As I said in my statement to the Assembly on 14 January, a joint working group on water quality has also been set up by the environment sector of the North/South Ministerial Council. Among other things, that will provide for the co-operative arrangements required by the Directive in respect of international river basin districts. The catchments of the Erne, Foyle, and Lough Neagh are shared with the South. As such, they must be included in international river basin districts under the terms of the Directive.

What fines is the Department of the Environment paying at present because EU Directives have not been implemented, and what fines are pending?

The Department prosecutes pollution offenders where the evidence permits. We seek the full recovery of our costs, including those of investigation and cleaning up waterways after pollution incidents. We liaise closely with the fishery authorities to ensure that those who cause fish kills also pay for restocking.

The fines levied by the courts are outside our control. The maximum fine for pollution offences is £20,000. The Department has conveyed the seriousness of water pollution offences to the Northern Ireland Court Service so that it can brief magistrates.

5.

asked the Minister of the Environment to detail driving test pass/fail ratio statistics for the past 12-month period; and to make a statement.

(AQO 747/01)

In the 12 months up to 31 December 2001, driving test pass rates were 52% for the normal "L" test for car drivers, 70% for motorcycles, 71% for buses and 54% for lorries.

The driving test in Northern Ireland is demanding. In 1999 it was updated to include more time on the road, driving on dual carriageways and other higher speed roads as well as a new approach to manoeuvres. New test marking procedures and other measures to enhance the quality and consistency of the test have also been introduced. Since 1999 rates have gradually reduced to present levels.

About 40,000 driving tests are conducted each year by my Department's Driver & Vehicle Testing Agency (DVTA). The quality of testing is monitored carefully and regularly in order to maintain consistency and high standards. During the past 10 years, two reviews of testing standards have been carried out in Northern Ireland by the Driving Standards Agency, and as a result of a recommendation by the Public Accounts Committee in November 2000 the DVTA agreed that such independent reviews should continue at five-year intervals. The next review is due in 2004.

In the light of those figures, can the Minister assure the House that driving examiners, while ensuring that we have high-quality drivers, will not be allowed to fail candidates unnecessarily? Does the Minister agree that test examiners should be brought under greater scrutiny in order to ensure consistency and equality?

In Great Britain, pass rates between the test centres vary from 17% to 72%, a spread of 55 percentage points. In Northern Ireland, the variation is from 40% to 65%, a spread of just 25 percentage points. Various factors produce minor differences on pass rates between centres, including road and traffic conditions and standards of instruction. However, procedures are in place to monitor and supervise driving examiners to ensure that testing standards are consistent and appropriate. Driving examiners are thoroughly trained alongside Great Britain examiners, and their training is updated from time to time. Supervising examiners also regularly sit in on the tests to ensure that standards are maintained, and independent reviews of testing standards are conducted every five years. Every four years, the agency checks driving instructors to ensure that their techniques and abilities to give instructions meet the required standard.

6.

asked the Minister of the Environment to outline the terms and conditions of the Causeway management plan.

(AQO 714/01)

The Member should by now have received my reply to his letter, which was addressed to the permanent secretary. Included with that letter was an annex, which sets out in detail the aims of the management plan for that area of outstanding natural beauty. The aim is to establish a framework for the management of this landscape, particularly to conserve and improve the Giant's Causeway World Heritage Site. The plan is being prepared by consultants, overseen by my Department's Environment and Heritage Service. We have set up an advisory group of experts, assisted by a working group of local interests. The management plan is a non-statutory plan designed to deal with the whole range of visitor management and related issues that have an impact on this area. It is planned to publish an issues paper for consultation in March. That will be followed by a draft plan to be published in June, again for public consultation. A final plan is to be provided to the Department in November, and I expect to publish the agreed management plan in January 2003.

The management plan will also inform the statutory Northern area plan, which is being prepared by my Department's Planning Service. This latter plan will also be the subject of full public consultation as well as a public inquiry. I have taken the decision to give high priority to preparing the management plan in acknowledgement of the special qualities of the Causeway area and the pressures affecting it. My Department has prepared an information leaflet to provide further background on the plan to the public, and copies have been made available to Members.

I thank the Minister for his reply and his letter, which I received at the end of last week. Does the Minister agree that the Causeway area and the Glens of Antrim are among the most special and delightful parts of Northern Ireland? Will he confirm that the management plan will simply be advisory for this area and that a balanced voice will be given to private sector experts while the plan is being prepared? Will he also confirm that his Department will not agree to the National Trust's call to vest the land that Moyle District Council is selling? Does he agree that nothing should be done that would give unfair advantage, promote their interests or frustrate the interests of others by those involved in the plan or the actions of the Department?

I assure the Member generally that whatever takes place in the Causeway coast area will happen in an objective and impartial manner. There will be no advantage for any one person or group. The management plan referred to by Mr Paisley will be a non-statutory plan dealing with many issues outside the remit of the Planning Service but informing the area plan being prepared by that service. The plan will look at the issues surrounding the quality of the landscape of this area of outstanding natural beauty, the protection of the World Heritage Site and how some of those matters can be best translated into policy and action. The management plan will inform the preparation of the statutory area plan, and it will be for the Planning Service to address matters relating to building development through that statutory process.

Is the Minister aware of the considerable local concern about the pace and nature of development in the Causeway area of outstanding natural beauty and of the need for much stricter planning guidelines to protect this priceless scenic asset?

As is everyone in Northern Ireland at this time, I am very much aware of the great concern that exists about the Causeway coast area in and around the Giant's Causeway, which is a World Heritage Site. I assure the House that, within my Department's remit, we will ensure that it will be zealously guarded and that anything that takes place there will be in keeping with the World Heritage Sites' values.

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7.

asked the Minister of the Environment when the draft Ards and Down area plan will be published; and to make a statement.

(AQO 711/01)

Publication of the draft Ards and Down area plan is programmed in the Planning Service's current corporate and business plan for March 2002. However, it is now expected that the publication date will be May 2002. Notice of intention to prepare the Ards and Down area plan 2015 was published in March 1999. Initial research was carried out at the Planning Service's headquarters, and the divisional plan team was established in May 2000. Following publication of an issues paper in December 2000, several well-attended public meetings were held in January 2001. Following these meetings and other consultations, over 800 representations were received. Those will help inform the content of the draft plan to be published.

I thank the Minister for a reply in which he has announced yet another delay in the publication of the Down and Ards plan. My interest is in Down particularly.

Does the Minister agree that the current planning and decision-making process in County Down is based on the late 1980s and is woefully out of date, and that current development is being stymied by the fact that there has not been a review of planning restrictions and regulations in that area for 15 years? Development is taking place and development has also been restricted. The work of the Minister's Department, and that of many other offices involved in infrastructure development, is being hampered. Can he give a final guarantee that the new date of May 2002 is final, and that the plan will be published then?

I know that Mr McGrady and other Members from that area are concerned. As far as it is possible to be absolute about anything, I can give an assurance that the plan will be published on the date stated. The old plan will remain of material consideration for any future planning until the new plan has become fruitful.

What steps have the Minister and his Department taken to encourage developers and builders to contribute to the local community through the area plan by providing roads, schools and so forth? Can the Minister confirm that the days when developers produced wall-to-wall houses have gone for good and that any applications they make must show a direct and positive contribution to the future life of the area? Will he also confirm that a balance between the equality initiative and social infrastructure is required?

Unfortunately, our time is up. I am sure that the Minister will give the Member a written answer.

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Regional Transportation Strategy

Debate resumed on motion:

Before Question Time, I was proposing that the Minister and his Department consider a separate transportation strategy for the north and west of the Province, especially for Londonderry. Londonderry has a population of 105,000 and a hinterland of another 200,000, making a total population of around 300,000.

Order. Members will please leave quietly, or continue their conversations outside the Chamber.

The case has been well made not only by our council in Londonderry but also by many of the councils in the north-west of the Province. When the Committee for Regional Development visited our council area and talked to various council representatives from the north-west, a unique case was made for exploring a separate transportation strategy, similar to that in Belfast, for the north-west of the Province. As the document on transportation for the next 10 years is presented today, I appeal to the Minister to give that issue serious consideration.

Overall, the document is a good starting point. As we look forward to the next 10 years, I hope that we can envisage a transportation system for Northern Ireland that we can all be proud of.

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. Ba mhaith liom cúpla pointe a dhéanamh maidir leis an straitéis seo gan pointe ar bith a athrá atá déanta ag Comhaltaí eile cheana féin.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the continuing development of the regional transportation strategy. I will try not to repeat points that have already been made.

The Minister's foreword to the proposed regional transportation strategy states:

Following a recent visit to Europe, and having looked at some of the excellent public transportation networks, the Committee for Regional Development would find it easy to have an optimistic vision of a regional transportation strategy in this region. However, as the Minister's foreword identifies, funding is finite, so the strategy has to be earthed in reality in the light of the funding available and the funding that is likely to become available.

The years of underinvestment and the backlog of road maintenance will influence the percentage of funding allocated to roads as opposed to other forms of transport. Although some Assembly Members may wish to see a more adventurous regional transportation strategy, the strategy has to be based on where we are.

The strategy is based on assumed funding. The Deputy Chairperson of the Committee for Regional Development has referred to a significant part of the total additional funding of £950 million over the next 10 years. A significant part of that amount is the £500 million that it is assumed will be available from an increase in baseline funding and/or from Executive programme funds. What is envisaged in the transportation strategy will be dependent on that.

Another significant part of the additional funding on which the strategy is based is £325 million from the private sector. While recognising that the Programme for Government identifies the need to find other sources of income apart from public spending, any acceptance of a private initiative, be it a public-private partnership, a design, build, finance and operate project or a system of bonds would have to be evaluated on an individual basis. Any decision to accept would be based on consideration of the short-term costs and benefits of each project and, indeed, the longer-term costs and benefits of any private finance initiative and the implications of that for public spending.

The developing strategy has advanced from the initial document, and it contains some outcomes and targets. The Committee pointed out that the regional transportation strategy should contain targets to enable implementation to be measured. I welcome the fact that the strategy has identified targets for pollution levels, increased usage of public transport, increased provision of public transport services, and accident reduction. Those can be found on page 25 of the summary document.

As the strategy continues to develop, targets will need to be identified for the increased use of alternative cleaner fuels and the increased use of cleaner vehicles and more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly vehicles. As the strategy develops, it should also identify targets for the reduction of congestion and journey times on key transport corridors in the region.

In developing a regional transportation strategy, it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel. We can learn from experiences in other places, particularly in other European cities and rural areas. Although other transportation solutions may not be able to be transported to this region because of different circumstances and parameters, we need to take account of how good transport solutions have been achieved, particularly in some European urban areas. I will return, time permitting, to some of those issues.

The strategy states that there will be a sub-regional transport plan for areas outside the Belfast metropolitan area. A Member said that he would like a sub-regional plan for a particular region in the north-west. It may not be practical to have a sub-regional plan for the three cross-border regions. However, the Minister and the Department should take into account the submission made by the north-west cross-border group on the importance of the key transport corridors from Belfast to Derry, Monaghan to Omagh and Omagh to Derry - not just for Derry, Strabane and Limavady - but for the council region of Donegal in the South.

The Irish central border area network (ICBAN) also published a document on the importance of transportation to the economic development of its cross-border region, which includes Fermanagh, Armagh, Monaghan, Cavan and Leitrim. The east border region committee has also done work on economic development and on the requirements of transportation in that region. The views of those three groups should be taken into consideration when formulating the sub-regional plan for areas other than the Belfast metropolitan area.

A draft equality impact assessment has been carried out on the regional transportation strategy. However, given the importance of transportation to accessing health services and given the limited number of hospitals with acute services and accident and emergency services and their location, will the Minister comment on the health impact assessment of the regional transportation strategy?

There are some related initiatives to be carried out in association with the regional transportation strategy. Some of those initiatives include publishing strategic planning policy statements on transportation and land use, housing and settlements, retailing and town centres and the countryside. Transport cannot be separated from land use and planning. That is particularly important in large urban areas such as the Belfast metropolitan area. An essential part of any urban transportation plan must be the management of urban space. One of the major themes of the regional development strategy is integrating land use and transportation planning. Therefore the planning policy statements, particularly the transportation and land use statement, should form part of the regional transportation strategy. The regional development strategy of September 2001 states that it is an objective to have a modern, sustainable, safe transportation system that benefits society, the economy and the environment, and which actively contributes to social inclusion and to everyone's quality of life.

The Northern Ireland transport policy statement 'Moving Forward' also states that there should be a change signalled on the important step of developing a strategy to enable a move away from transport strategy dominated by car usage to a more balanced and integrated system in which public transport and non-motorised transport will be attractive options for many trips. Both 'Shaping Our Future', of which the 'Regional Transportation Strategy' is the daughter document, and the 'Moving Forward' document agree.

In relation to those objectives, I want to return to the European examples of good practice and transportation. There are a number of principles that are common to urban transportation strategy and policy. They are common to the European Commission Director-General's White Paper for energy and transport, and they are common to the International Association of Public Transport, which involves public transport authorities across the world. They are also common to the strategies of transport authorities in Europe, which have developed successful transportation systems. Those principles are: traffic congestion costs money; productive time is lost by people who spend more time travelling; commerce suffers from late and more expensive deliveries; and private car usage is not sustainable. Congestion and private car usage are not conducive to prosperous economic development.

Another principle that has been recognised and accepted within those policies is that cars take up space. There are a number of photographs - unfortunately I do not have them here - which made a comparison between the amount of space taken up on a road by four buses carrying 200 people as opposed to private cars carrying the same number of people with an occupancy of about 1·4 persons per vehicle. An accepted principle of those transportation strategies is that cars are not urban-space efficient, and it has also been identified that cars are not energy efficient.

In terms of environmental quality and the quality of life of people living in urban areas, public transportation is a much more acceptable form of transport than the private vehicle. Cars contribute to pollution; they contribute to noise levels; and they compare unfavourably with public transport alternatives.

In addition to those principles, there is the issue of social inclusion. The Chairperson of the Committee for Regional Development stated that 30% of households in the North do not have access to a private car, and the best way to achieve social inclusion, which is also an objective of the Programme for Government and the regional development strategy, is the promotion of a safe public transport system. The regional transportation strategy must take those principles on board as the strategy develops.

The experience in some European cities is that it can take 20 to 30 years to create a modal shift, particularly in large conurbations. It is not easy to change people's transport attitudes and habits. The regional transportation strategy covers a period of 10 years, and it is essential that as it develops, it enables us to achieve a modal shift in transportation usage and a forward-looking and sustainable transportation system. Go raibh maith agat.

I welcome the Minister's statement and the initiation of the debate. Perhaps it is appropriate that we should welcome the fact that the Minister has seen fit to launch the report with a debate in the Assembly, even though it means that some of us are commenting having had only a brief opportunity to look through a fairly detailed paper. At least it shows that there is some recognition of the role of the Assembly - it was not announced to the BBC first. There are many issues in the strategy that will require detailed consideration not just between now and mid-April, the formal consultation period, but by the Assembly and various Committees over a longer period.

The primary issue seems to come down to funding. The Minister has detailed the money that has already been allocated and the additional money that has been identified as necessary. However, it is clear that even those sums will not be adequate to provide the quality public transport service that we require together with the improvements that also appear to be required by certain roads. The Assembly must address the problem of Treasury funding.

The Minister identified £80 million from developers' contributions. I hope that that sort of money can be extracted. The Minister and his Colleague, the Minister of the Environment, may have left it too late to obtain realistic sums. We are already overloaded with out-of-town shopping centres and out-of-town industrial estates, which have created many of our transport problems, yet no contribution will be made. Recently, Belfast City Airport's terminal building was rebuilt, and yet there was no developer's contribution to provide a link to the railway line, which runs about 30 yards away. Thinking along these lines is much needed, and I hope that the Minister can make something of it.

It is the Minister's expectation that the private sector will contribute £325 million. That kind of money would make a difference, yet there is no indication as to how it can be obtained. I have seen examples where PPPs add significantly to public goods in those areas where there is a semi-commercial activity. Mr Deputy Speaker, you and I know that the Antrim town centre development is a classic example. However, in many cases it is questionable that PPPs can deliver the necessary public goods for a public service. The document does not contain much detail as to how that will be dealt with.

Bonds receive a brief and passing mention, but this is an issue that has to be addressed by the Assembly. Will the Minister explain more about bonds in his winding-up speech? It is as if the issue was mentioned and immediately dropped when someone whispered "Watch out for the Treasury - look what happened to Ken Livingstone." There is no doubt that bonds played their part in New York and could also have played a part in Mr Kiley's plans for London Transport. It may be that the Assembly could consider bonds as a suitable way to raise funds that are not otherwise available.

There are a couple of points that have not been mentioned. It appears that 10% of people walk to work. There is one way in which the regional transportation strategy could tie into the regional development strategy. Will we allow massively increasing suburbanisation? Today's increasingly smaller families would accept homes near to jobs in a way that the traditional mum, dad and 2·4 children would not - they wish to live in the suburbs. That could be considered as a strategic development issue. Let us not assume that walking is what people do at either end of a car journey.

Although a good national cycle network is proposed for Northern Ireland, very little of it is providing people with the opportunity to undertake urban journeys in safety. It is good to know that there is a cycle network along the north coast from Portrush to Portstewart, and, on a good day, it might even tempt some of us to use it. However, that is not meeting the transportation needs in our urban areas.

The Minister will be disappointed if I do not dwell at length on railways, especially since there is a suggestion in the report that some MLAs and community groups will bitterly oppose any retrenchment on the railway system. Yes, Minister, we most certainly will. The Knockmore railway line is not functioning properly because it has three badly timed services a day, but that does not mean that some of us do not see it as a major opportunity for public transport services in that area. There is population growth in all the villages along the line, as well as in Antrim and Lisburn at each end. The Dublin Area Rapid Transport system (DART), which is a straight line, has been referred to. In Belfast we have the opportunity for a circle line, serving the growing villages of Crumlin, Glenavy and Ballinderry, and also those along the northern loop such as Templepatrick, Ballyclare and Mossley. It would be crazy to allow a facility like that to disappear in the short term when it could provide such good opportunities in the long term.

It is disappointing to see that a great question mark remains over the main part of the railway structure outside the immediate suburban area. The line from Ballymena to Derry is under threat, as is the line to Larne. We have already seen problems with the Bangor line, but at least it will be retained. Surely lessons were learnt in the 1960s, that every time an arm is chopped off a railway system, it becomes harder to attract passengers on to the core lines of the system, because the input of passengers is reduced? The system is greater than the sum of its parts.

Surely the rail issue requires a closer examination. The entire rail system should be examined and, in particular, the issue of the integration of rail services with bus facilities or car parks at either end to attract passengers away from cars. As I said earlier, a Templepatrick park-and-ride station to get people from Coleraine off the M2 seems a far better solution to the strategic problems of travelling from the north than to build an additional lane on the M2, where there is no room for it. Those problems are still there and still require significant funding. However, railways will require less funding than that we anticipate devoting to roads in congested urban areas.

There are other areas of disappointment. I draw the Minister's attention to a map in the regional development strategy that purports to show urban areas. It shows places such as Kilkeel and Comber - which are undoubtedly of great importance to Members from south Down and Strangford - but not Antrim, which according to the regional transportation strategy is a major growth town. Perhaps if we decided what the urban areas are, it would help us when discussing urban matters.

There is no way that we will deal with the problems of excessive road traffic without grasping the nettle of congestion and parking charges. However, there is no mention of how we are to deal with it in relation to out-of-town shopping centres, for example. If we start charging for congestion in town centres, but fail to address the problems of out-of-town shopping centres with acres of car parks, we will merely drive whatever life there is left in town centres out into the country. That must be seen as detrimental on environmental grounds. Undoubtedly, the most efficient public transport systems are those which bring people into the centre of a conurbation, not those that disperse people around ring roads to shop in the sort of developments that have grown up recently.

The reference to a rapid transport pilot is to be welcomed. However, is it not scandalous, and probably a situation that is unique to Belfast, that the Comber rail line has an interesting variety of trees growing on it, but it makes no contribution to the public transport needs of east Belfast? It could relieve congestion on the Newtownards Road as a guided bus route.

Why have Translink's proposals for a quality bus corridor to take buses away from the most congested areas of the Saintfield and Ormeau Roads come to nothing? Why is Belfast the only city in Europe that can manage to be so poor?

There is a fleeting reference to the - yes, Minister, I give way.

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If the Member wishes to know what happened to that plan, he should ask his Alliance Party colleagues in Castlereagh Borough Council who opposed it.

I presume that, since the Minister is alleging that Alliance councillors opposed the plan, it would be a good incentive for a DUP Minister to carry it forward. I thank him for that.

The report acknowledges the findings of the Environment Committee's report on school transport. It is a major report, and serious funding from the Department of the Environment is required to address the issues. That money has not been forthcoming. I acknowledge that that is not the fault of the Department for Regional Development. However, it is clearly an issue that we cannot cope with the needs of school transport in a regional development strategy if we do not examine the issues that arise and the Department of the Environment's response to them. It may be the case that the timescale will not permit that to be addressed properly. There is a certain lack of joined-up government between the two arms of what used to be the Department of the Environment.

The report highlights a need for private sector funding. It is not solely a commercial issue in some areas. I hope the Minister will tell us how he will introduce measures such as a public service obligation if he is seeking to go down the line of private funding, because it is not there.

Although the report contains some of the right buzzwords, the financial provision seems to be focused on a predominantly roads-based system. There is no alternative to such a system in rural areas. It will be some time before some of the railway lines in the west of the Province are recreated, if ever.

Although a roads-based system might be appropriate in rural areas and in the more dispersed west, it is not so in Greater Belfast and in many larger towns. The M1, the M2, the Saintfield Road and the Sydenham bypass will be unable to cope with the current demands unless there is a major improvement in public transport. The equality and environmental aspects of the policy require such improvement. I welcome the publication of the report. However, I hope that during the consultation there will be a further shift of emphasis towards provision that better serves the needs of the entire community, not just car users.

First and foremost, the opening vision statement of the report,

must be changed in order to get the priorities right. The aim should be to have "a safe, modern, sustainable transportation system". Road safety must be the first priority of the regional transportation strategy. The Assembly must address the fact that Northern Ireland has the highest road traffic accident rates in the UK. More people have been killed in road traffic accidents in Northern Ireland than have been killed during the troubles. As stated in the report, in Northern Ireland there are over 10 road deaths per 100,000 of the population, by comparison with five to six deaths per 100,000 in England. The rate in Northern Ireland is almost twice the UK average. According to Prof David Begg, chairperson of the UK Commission for Integrated Transport, a key test of the strategy's success would be whether Northern Ireland's accident rate were to drop to the UK average by the end of the 10-year period. If that has not happened, the strategy should be judged a failure.

What shocked me from the outset was that the document sets no specific targets for a reduction in the number of accidents or casualties. It states that its aim is to contribute and, wherever possible, to demonstrate progress towards the achievement of long-term road casualty reduction targets. It states that that will be set in the Northern Ireland road safety strategic plan. What about joined-up government? A diagram on page 69 of the report, which I find quite shocking, suggests that there could be a reduction in road traffic accidents. The bar graph shows what the accident reduction rate could be if the strategy is implemented. In ten years the number of accidents could be reduced by 5%. That would bring Northern Ireland nowhere near the UK average - it is abysmal.

Pages 106 and 107 outline the safety aspects and provide a breakdown of the gains to be derived from certain actions. If the Department for Regional Development introduced accident remedial works on 25 sites, traffic management schemes that could prevent 30 accidents per year, structural maintenance, et cetera, the savings could be £950 million over the ten-year period. How much additional funding does the Department seek? The answer is £950 million. The savings are outlined in the document. The Department simply has to invest more money in measures to reduce accidents, casualties and deaths on the roads and it will have its money. Is that too simple? It is not rocket science.

Much time and energy has been spent on finding sources of additional funding - the Executive, European funding, developers, or public-private partnerships.

The two paragraphs on road safety state that there are 12,000 road traffic casualties per year in Northern Ireland, at the cost of £450 million to the economy per year. If road traffic accidents, casualties and deaths were reduced, it would not mean that the £450 million would go straight back into the Treasury - of course not. However, if a focus on reducing accidents saved even £90 million per year in emergency services - fire brigade, ambulance, health and medical costs - it would be a gain. It is far too simple.

Why are we beating our breasts about where the money will come from when it is already there in the document? Admittedly, a big problem is that hospital fees, doctors' fees and ambulance costs all go to a different Department. However, when the Minister is making his bid for money for the strategy, can he not explain to the Executive that money will be saved in those areas by focusing on reducing accidents?

A 5% reduction in accidents is referred to. I have talked about the cost to the economy. What about the cost of human suffering? That should be taken into account even more. The strategy is going absolutely nowhere unless it makes a far bigger dent in the road accident, casualty and death rates in Northern Ireland and, at the very least, brings them into line with the UK averages.

There are many ways to fund the strategy. Let us start by getting people off the roads. Every intervention today called for more investment in public transport and pointed out that the allocation of 65% of funds to the road network and 35% to public transport is wrong. If the figures were reversed, we might get somewhere. People will get off the roads and on to the trains and buses, which will start to reduce road accidents and also make a cleaner, greener environment. This is not rocket science - it is very simple.

What about the wonderful Safer Routes to Schools pilot schemes? Instead of piloting them, why are they not introduced for real? Home zones should also be introduced, instead of being piloted. A pilot scheme is not needed to prove that those things work. Money should be spent on those schemes. Traffic management and traffic calming can also save money and lives. That should be the priority.

I have concentrated on road safety because it is, and should be, a priority. However, I compliment the document on issues such as accessibility to buses. Targets have been set for Citybus and Ulsterbus to introduce 100% accessibility to buses for the disabled. Could that not be extended to the rail system? The Omnibus Travel Club campaigns for accessibility to buses. That organisation's valuable work should be highlighted and used as a model.

The need to invest more in public transport rather than roads has been mentioned. On radio this morning, Lisa Fagan from Friends of the Earth lucidly pointed out that 30% of households in Northern Ireland do not have access to a car and that in Belfast the figure rises to around 50%. Are those figures not taken into account when the strategies are being written? What is happening?

The Minister repeated the objectives set out in the opening paragraphs of the document; I shall do likewise. The first is environmental impact - more money for public transport would benefit the environment. Another objective was to improve safety. Accessibility was another -

I assume that that is integration between Departments. I simply ask the Minister to put his money where his mouth is. Four of those objectives could be achieved if he listened, changed his priorities and put much more investment into public transport rather than into roads. That would reduce accidents and would create a cleaner, greener environment. I am glad that the Minister asks us only to "take note" of the report. Judging by today's debate, I suspect that few of us could have supported a motion asking us to approve this document. Put safety first, Minister. Put safety first - then come back to us.

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