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

I have constantly said that our roads programme, more than anything else, needs to prioritise bypasses that take through traffic out of our towns and villages. Does that mean we have to have major capacity motorways in all cases? To my mind, no, but we have to first and foremost focus on towns. The Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Peter Burke, launched our towns first strategy this week. Transport is part of that, as is taking traffic out of the centre of our towns as best we can.