Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

It is somewhat rich to listen to the Minister talk about his concern regarding bridge strikes. While there are an alarming number of them, three years have passed since the Minister of State at the Department of Transport promised to reintroduce height limits for trucks. Since then, the Minister has only talked about it. There does not appear to be any political will to tackle this issue. The current Minister of State at the Department of Transport has reiterated his intention to take action in this regard and is consulting everyone under the sun. While he produces endless reports on the matter, there is a serious lack of political will to bite the bullet and make the decision. When the Dublin Port tunnel was planned, height restrictions were in place, as was common throughout Europe. The Minister, or his colleagues, have promised to do this for the past three or four years. He should simply end this debate by reimposing height restrictions. Members are continually being lobbied about this issue and the nonsense that transpired in respect of the height of the Dublin Port tunnel is a case in point. The solution is to ban the so-called super cube trucks and to reintroduce the height limit. The Minister should take responsibility and do so.

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