Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

It is regrettable that the Minister is simply reiterating points made in the past, when the idea behind the motion is to bring forward immediate realistic measures that could prove to be effective in their simplicity — 500 more buses, a flat €1 fare, the opening up of QBCs and providing park and ride facilities. It is regrettable that he does not seem to be listening. It is important to point out that these are measures which could be taken immediately, but they are also in line with a basic principle that should underline transport policy that we should aim to make every journey safer, quicker and cheaper than by car on which as we all know from experience we are over-reliant.

Sometimes the lesson is learned painfully that we must do things differently. I cite the example of an event which occurred on 22 November which affected County Wicklow, in particular, but also those dependent on the M50 to get home in the evening. It is reckoned that 40,000 were affected by the unprecedented gridlock. It was unsafe having so many people, some of whom were accompanied by young children, stuck in a queue trying to get home for up to seven hours. Among them were people who were sick, elderly persons and people with diabetes. They were stuck in a way that nobody in a modern society should ever expect to experience. It does not seem to set off alarm bells with the Government, but then there is an air of complacency about it, at which I suppose we should not be surprised.

I wrote to the Dublin City Council manager asking for an independent review of what had gone wrong. Of course, I did not get this, but I received an in-house response in which the city manager made some interesting points. The cause of the emergency, the burst waterpipe, was known 24 hours before work began but the council decided not to work at night-time for health and safety reasons. That is incredible. There was nothing more unsafe than what happened. Given that modern machinery incorporate lights, it does not make that one could not have done this work at night-time.

Communication between the two local authorities involved was by email. There was poor communication and even worse traffic management. A contraflow system should have been put in place, but that did not happen.

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