Mr. Brendan O'Brien:

There are places in Dublin city where we restrict deliveries, such as into pedestrian locations up to 11 o'clock. We also have time-plated loading bays and it has been recognised that willy-nilly deliveries into the city centre cause a problem. We are starting work on a managed delivery strategy in the city centre because the introduction of Luas cross-city will make deliveries into certain streets virtually impossible and we have to look at alternative means of getting deliveries in. We are also doing a pilot which takes deliveries in while distributing them using other methods, such as people on electric bicycles and on foot. We are well aware of the problem and are doing work on it.

The quays are a key artery for public transport into the city. The Liffey cycle route is designed to cater for the growing number of cyclists coming into the city and linking in to the other cycle routes which criss-cross the city centre. At various locations between Capel Street bridge back to the Four Courts, all the car parking will be removed. The locations to which the Deputy referred are the wider parts of the quays and, while we have some space for limited parking on the side of buildings, even if we converted a lane after Capel Street, we would lose that lane because we do not have the continuous width.

It widens out and narrows again but basically, one has two lanes. I reiterate we have public transport at present and will put in more cycling provision. Moreover, we will increase the amount of bus lanes, bus provision and bus stops along the quays to grow the public transport in that area. I suppose the point I was making was that some of the parking in those specific areas will be removed. Some of the parking on the building side will be removed to provide bus stops but it is at the wider part of the quays and is not reflected further down. The point is it would not necessarily increase the capacity of the overall quays. Unfortunately, the quays vary in width as one goes along them and it is not as simple as saying there is a line of car-parking that we can remove from the entire length of the quays to increase the capacity. I can assure the committee that we look for any capacity we can find in the city.