Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

From the N7 to the N4 to the Newcastle Road there is a gridlocked rectangle, a traffic island from one end of the day to the other, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. One little accident can cause tailbacks of three or four miles. While efforts are being made to address these problems they are too little, too late. Transport 21 contains a number of ambitious proposals that could work as part of an integrated transport plan, such as the recently announced metro west, which follows on from the metro northern route. It is supposed to link Tallaght, Clondalkin and Liffey Valley shopping centre, covering Lucan and Blanchardstown but will not work unless the main Kildare line is operational.

With Adamstown coming on stream with 10,000 new houses, all traffic experts say there will not be the capacity to cater for it, let alone for Hazelhatch, the rest of Lucan and Clondalkin, unless the line is electrified. Under Transport 21 the electrification of the Kildare line is not due to take place until 2015. The interconnector linking Heuston Station with the city centre is not due until 2015 so what is the point in having a Luas to Lucan or Clondalkin, a metro west plan or what is a negligible bus service if they will not be serviced by the main transport plank, which must be the existing railway line? When that line is four-tracked and electrified it will have the capacity to take the huge amounts of residential work traffic and act as a hub for travelling north or south, into the city centre or west. Without that missing link any transport plan is doomed to failure.

The cost of the works currently being carried out on the M50 has risen to €1 billion from the estimated €300 million and will cause four years of gridlock. We have an opportunity to fast-track, if Members pardon the pun, the electrification of the railway line and the interconnector. If the investment is made now then, after four years of gridlock, people will have a choice of how to get from one place to another.

A survey carried out by Maynooth College two years ago found that two thirds of workers in Lucan worked outside the city centre. Whether they want to go to Citywest, the airport or Blanchardstown, they have no choice but to drive. Let people spend an hour stuck in traffic if they have a choice, but I call on the Minister for Transport to fast-track electrification and the interconnector so they are given a choice.

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