Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Doocey. To go back to earlier comments about rural transport, investment in rural transport is critical and it requires compact growth of these towns so we have the ability to provide viable services. We cannot leave rural Ireland as car dependent and locked into car use. We need to have compact growth in our towns and villages so that rural bus services and linkages to other transport hubs become viable. This requires action at local level on zoning when local authorities carry out their planning processes. This is critical. There needs to be common purpose between transport planning and land use planning. My feeling is that while perhaps they have not gone in separate directions in the past they have not always spoken to each other. I saw it in Wicklow recently with regard to the regional spatial economic strategy, when we could not include the railway in how we would look at the N11 upgrade.

Bypasses will be necessary because they can bring a bit of life and vitality and put people first in town centres where we can remove the traffic that is choking town centres. Where they are necessary, the current model seems to be the type 2 dual carriageway bypass. Would the Department consider that there might be a requirement to look at others such as type 3, which is the 2+1 carriageway method, that might have slower speeds but would include a safety measure and would be cheaper? Do the witnesses think we need to reconsider the bypass design model we have?