Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I want to ask the Minister for Finance about traffic congestion every morning in Dublin, particularly on the M50, and to refer to a number of related matters. Yesterday I met a family by the name of Price in Lucan and they are typical of 100,000 families caught in this bind. The Taoiseach, speaking at the Ard-Fheis last weekend, made the point that people should imagine the changes that are yet to come in transport. I know that the Government cannot wave a magic wand and sort all this out overnight, but the Price family are commuters — commuting generally means movement — and in their case it takes between 25 and 47 minutes to get their three-year old to a crèche and a similar time to get from there back on to the main route into Dublin.

The M50 roundabout is a major contributory factor to rising stress levels, lack of productivity and consternation among hundreds of thousands of commuters, including those coming into the city from outside the greater Dublin area. The Price family is no exception to this. Having spent two hours out there and having seen at first hand the chaos and confusion, one can understand that a great number of people in Lucan and in the vicinity of the Ballyowen roundabout have lost a sense of hope that anybody can do anything about this.

I put forward a number of practical suggestions that could relieve some of that congestion and ease the movement of traffic in the short term. For instance, the Government is discussing with National Toll Roads the question of raising the toll barriers and the Government will decide on that matter, but surely a mechanism should be put in place so that when traffic backs up as far as the bridge, an arrangement would be made for the toll barriers to be lifted, which would ease the congestion in getting on to the M50 in the first place. It is obvious that when school term begins, up to 40,000 extra car journeys are made by parents delivering children to and from school. Perhaps in that area a specific facility for specialist school bus runs would be helpful in relieving that pressure and congestion. Will the Minister consider that those two suggestions are practical and implementable? I have a few more besides for him.

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