Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I agree with the Minister that the Dublin transport authority should have a key role in traffic management. However, we do not have a Dublin transport authority and we have traffic chaos. I tabled this question in the context of the gridlock we experienced two weeks ago on the N11. That sort of problem will arise on an increasingly regular basis because of the growth in traffic and because many of the public transport measures will not give benefit for many years. The key to survival in coming years is traffic management. We need to invest in it in a major way and give it considerably more prominence and consideration than we have done in the past.

The M50 will be under construction for the next five years regardless of how efficiently it is done. It will get worse. Already 5,000 to 6,000 cars have been displaced away from it on a daily basis and are now using local roads, which adds further to congestion. The big dig for the metro and Luas lines is about to commence. All these projects will happen in the context of a city that needs to keep functioning. The only way for this to happen is through immediate short-term measures. While it would be great to have a strategic plan, what short-term measures does the Minister have in mind? Will he give consideration to the suggestion I made here of having a special traffic management officer corps within the Garda reserve? I ask him to discuss the matter with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Despite the large numbers we are told are in the traffic corps, in reality at any given time only a small finite number is on duty in Dublin and even that number is a drain on Garda resources. It is not a fraction of the number required to keep Dublin going. For example no additional gardaí were available for deployment on the M50 when the work started, which cannot be allowed to continue. As the Minister probably realises, there were 100 accidents in the first month, every one of which resulted in a traffic jam. It will get worse and needs to be addressed. While I realise it is not entirely an issue within the transport portfolio, it is an issue that needs to be considered.

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