James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment. Barrier-free tolling is welcome but no toll at all would have been better, as others have pointed out.

Given that we will have tolling, although I thought we were wealthy enough not to need to impose a further tax on motorists and hauliers, I appeal to the Minister to take the disabled into account. My appeal to his colleague, the Minister for Finance, on stamp duty fell on deaf ears so I hope we will get a better response today. There is an anomaly at present where if a person is driving a vehicle that has been specially adapted because of a disability, he can pass toll-free but if he has a disability and is displaying a sticker from a body such as the Irish Wheelchair Association, he cannot. Will the Minister examine this area and lessen the burden for those who are already burdened with disability?

People have mentioned rest areas, highlighting a problem that is particularly acute in my constituency — the lack of forward planning. People know the motorways will be used and the lengths of journeys that must be undertaken but it is only now that we are providing for rest areas. Hopefully it will be a speedy process.

The other issue is congestion on the M50. It is a nightmare for commuters; the "M50 car park" and the "mad cow roundabout" have entered common parlance. Fingal County Council, in its discussions with the NRA when the road was being designed and built, wanted to put in proper junctions, flyovers and on-off ramps so traffic could flow freely. It was told they were not necessary but now we are in the current mess, digging up the M50 to install a third lane on each side and we may need to add a further lane in ten years. Has that been studied? What is the projected usage for the M50 in ten years time and will we need a fourth lane?

The M1 must be upgraded to six lanes. Large-scale development is proposed, with talk of a new port at Bremore, lands zoned for industrial use at Lissenhall, Tesco, Ikea and the new terminal and proposed new runway at Dublin Airport. All of these will cause a huge increase in use and we should anticipate it. Instead of waiting until capacity has reached breaking point, we should plan ahead. The people of north Dublin would be happy to see new developments in the port at Balbriggan but they will not suffer as they have had to for the past 15 years a development that creates more problems than it solves. I demand that the Minister ensure there is simultaneous development of the infrastructure necessary to make that port an asset rather than a headache. There must be access roads and a new ring-road from north of Balbriggan to Navan and on to Naas for traffic to the west and south that does not need to go near Dublin or the M50.

On the M1, with the development of Lissenhall, we need another spur, something I have called for in the past, to ease congestion in the mornings and evenings. Such congestion will only get worse as these lands are developed. At present it takes 30 minutes to get from Lusk to Swords, and longer to get from Skerries, Lough Shinny or Rush. That journey used to take ten minutes. Despite the improvements brought by the M1, we have not planned for sufficient capacity. With all respect to the Taoiseach, I do not want to hear again that no one could have anticipated the growth of the country and that is why the M50 is insufficient and must be upgraded.

Road signs are not clear enough. There is no sign for Lusk at the first motorway junction coming from Dublin city. It is first posted at another exit three or four miles further north, even though the town now has a population of 7,000.

The gridlock on the M50 is not just a nuisance for commuters, it is a serious problem for the emergency services. The Fire Service and ambulances get held up. It is bad enough that ambulances are stuck in accident and emergency wards because their trolleys are being used by patients in the hospital due to the lack of beds. I asked the Minister for Health and Children to make spare trolleys available so ambulances can leave hospital and get back on to the road. If the road is blocked, however, it could be a matter of life and death for someone.

In Skerries, the local area plan includes a new access road so trucks and buses do not have to go through Rush because they cannot go under the bridge in Skerries. Using this new road, they will be able to go straight through but we have been told by the county engineer that it may take up to six years to achieve the necessary €5 million spend. What is the problem and where are the hold-ups that mean something so straightforward takes so long? It certainly baffles the people of north Dublin.

A model for road use and capacity around Swords was carried out in 2004 by the then county architect, who is now county manager, and even then it showed we were operating 25% above capacity. This will get worse with the proposed metro coming on stream. Have arrangements been made for a park and ride facility and if not, why not? If arrangements have been made, it will increase traffic flow into the area as people start to use public transport.

The train stations throughout Dublin north have insufficient car parking and no nipper bus service, except for a pilot service in Balbriggan north in recent years. This scheme has worked and should be extended to Portmarnock, Malahide, Rush, Donabate and Skerries. Road access to the stations is also appallingly bad, particularly in Portmarnock, making it difficult for pedestrians to walk to them safely. In Lusk, it took six years to complete a footpath from the village to the train station so pedestrians could get there.

The trains are overcrowded. The motorways under this Bill, like the accident and emergency departments in the hospitals, are not islands onto themselves in the system. While we put roads in place, we must also support trains, extend the DART out to Balbriggan and put more capacity in place on the trains. I see patients who faint on the train, particularly pregnant women, and schoolchildren who are forced off the train by people trying to get to work. I know a man who retired early because he could no longer face the journey on the train from Balbriggan.

We seem to be caught up with difficult red tape which people either do not understand or find difficult to accept. I refer to the Dublin Port tunnel which has been mentioned by other speakers and to the fact that the No. 41 express bus cannot use the tunnel because it needs a licence to do so. It is a bizarre situation that public transport should require any licence to pass through the tunnel but even if this is the case, surely the Minister should make that happen as soon as possible. Even if EU rules and regulations state that a licence is necessary, why was Dublin Bus not invited to tender for a licence? Swords has a population of 40,000. I congratulate Paddy Maguire, the bus driver, for using his initiative and exposing this farcical red tape where taxpayers have paid for the tunnel and the public buses but cannot avail of the tunnel. I wonder what is the view of the Green Party of this unnecessary increased pollution with the bus on the road half an hour longer than it needs be. I hope the Minister will pre-empt the problems rather than waiting for them to develop.

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