Mr. Hugh Creegan:

Deputies Shortall and Rock asked many questions about Santry. We know how difficult Santry is. There is a problem for the bus system in Santry. It takes a long time for buses to get through the Santry area. We did a great deal of work to examine what the best thing to do might be. We struggled to come up with a better solution than the solution we are proposing. We do not underestimate the challenges. We do not have a plan B sitting in our pocket. We have thought about whether we could add lane capacity on the section of road from Coolock Lane roundabout down to Shantalla Bridge. It is possible that we could add a third lane there. If we could put extra traffic onto that link, it would ease the pressure on it. However, that would not address the fact that if this proposal goes ahead, there will be a one-way system through Santry.

We would love to have another solution. The Deputies said there are alternatives. If there is an alternative that enables us to get the bus system working reasonably well through there - it does not have to be perfect - while preserving what people want, we would love to explore it. A great deal of genuine effort went into examining the various options. We looked at what we would need to do to fit in a fourth lane. None of the options was very palatable. The only thing we have in our back pocket is the possibility of a third lane southbound on the Santry bypass between Coolock Lane and Shantalla Bridge. We have not done a design, so we will have to check whether it is technically possible. We will have to get TII to say it is okay with it, but it still might not be enough. When we were doing this work, we were very conscious of the Omni Park shopping centre. Members will notice that it will be possible to access the shopping centre from all the routes that are currently used to access it. There will be an issue with leaving the shopping centre. The entrance to the centre will remain the same, but people will have to turn left when leaving it. I know there is congestion at the Omni Park shopping centre at the moment. I think it would work better if cars had to turn left when leaving the centre. That is a small point. It is cold comfort to the shopping centre. The junction would perform slightly better if those leaving the centre had to turn left.

One of the Deputies spoke about making the consultative forum useful. If people can bring to it ideas that work, it will be up to us to develop them. If we can get an alternative that does most of what we are trying to do now, it will be great if it works. We would love to do it. I think that is probably all I can say on that matter.

Some traffic modelling was done a couple of years ago, but not enough was done to be able to provide it in a useable format. Our intention on all of the corridors is to do traffic modelling at the next stage. We are putting our hands up and saying these interventions will cause extra traffic congestion on other routes. That is just the reality. We do not need a model to tell us that. We know it will be the reality. We will do detailed transport modelling at the next stage of the process. We will issue it to whoever wants it. There will be no difficulty with that. We do not have it at this stage.