Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Before I address that, may I refer to the Committee Stage amendments we expect to make to the road traffic legislation currently before the Dáil. The legislation is designed to create the kind of flexible environment in which we can experiment and obtain good value for money in putting in new active-travel and BusConnects projects. The impetus for the amendments came from the judgment of Mr. Justice Meenan with regard to Strand Road, another controversial and in many ways divisive local project. Fearing that his judgment might lead to a chilling effect on development in the area of decarbonising and in promoting active travel, we identified the need to have greater clarity and certainty regarding how local authorities would apply these sorts of experimental traffic measures. In this regard, a weakness was identified in the existing legislation.