Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Buttimer. It is nice to meet Ms Graham and Mr. Creegan again in person. I am looking at the strategy and I will start with chapter 13 on roads, which outlines the strategic importance of the M50 and M50 resilience and it identifies the lack of adequate resilience between junctions 6 and 7, which is the location of the M50 toll bridge from Lucan to Blanchardstown, in the event of accidents. The objective in the strategy document states, "The NTA, in collaboration with TII and the relevant local authorities, will seek the development and construction of an appropriate road link between the N3 and N4 national roads, which can provide a satisfactory alternative in the event of incidents arising on the M50 between Junctions 6 and 7, in addition to providing potential additional public transport linkages." I would like to know where that project is and what local authorities are involved. TII has already identified 11 possible routes and those are the routes the NTA will make a decision on when identifying a preferred route. Are the witnesses aware that eight of those routes go through the special amenity area of the Liffey Valley and that they would devastate green spaces, protected areas and heritage sites such as Porterstown Park in Dublin 15, Shackleton Mill, St. Catherine's Park in Lucan and Leixlip and the St. Edmundsbury lands? Will that be taken into consideration in the decision on an emerging preferred route? The objective relates to M50 resilience only and it says nothing about the unsafe and unsustainable traffic that rolls through Lucan village every day from 4 p.m. and from 12 noon at the weekends. Will this process of identifying a route take on board issues other than M50 resilience, such as the fact that eight of those routes would be completely unacceptable? Will the process form part of a transport strategy for Lucan village?

I refer to public transport and orbital transport in this area, which are not effective. We are talking about an hourly bus. There was the 239 route, which used to go from Blanchardstown Centre to Liffey Valley Shopping Centre but that has been cut in two. The bus only comes every hour now and BusConnects means that to get a bus into town people from my area of Lucan north have to walk kilometres to get to Lucan Road because they cannot rely on that hourly bus down Laraghcon Hill and they have to walk further as the 25 is not coming from Main St. in Lucan. The new pedestrian and cycleway bridge as part of the canal loop project is on hold so pedestrians do not have safe passage or cycling over Lucan bridge.

The GDA cycle network was part of the strategy. Did it get enough feedback through the consultation and did enough people know about it? Part of the Liffey Valley greenway was dropped as a specific objective. There are elements of routes still in place but they are pared back and there is a reduction in bridges crossing the Liffey. As a greenway on the Liffey Valley would be an exceptional amenity for Dublin, I am suggesting that it be reinstated and it could potentially be a spur on the canal loop greenway.