Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will try to go into more detail on the latter part of my script. The medium term outlook is far better than the picture painted by Deputy Curran. I intend to make the case for increased investment in public transport as part of this year's review of the Government's capital plan and the need to tackle congestion will be a key theme in that case. I acknowledge fully everything the Deputy has said and I acknowledge the need to address the issue. We need a major step forward in our attitude to public transport and we need extra funding for the sorts of measures to which the Deputy referred.

In terms of the specifics, questions should be addressed to TII or the NTA, but if the Deputy has a problem getting an adequate response from either of those bodies regarding specific issues in his constituency, I will certainly be able to ask questions on his behalf. There is no difficulty in that regard but those issues are not ones that I can address across the floor of the House today. The Deputy has raised what are operational matters for the aforementioned bodies; they are not matters for me.

On a general policy level, I will address the matter of the M50. Besides managing demand and optimising operational efficiencies, we are introducing measures to address the very serious and difficult problem of congestion. The Deputy is absolutely right when he says that the numbers using the M50 have increased to approximately 140,000. Those numbers were not predicted and they make it very difficult to manage. However, we have introduced revised merge layouts, permanently signed diversion routes and enhanced vehicle recovery services. The Deputy spoke about being stopped on the M50 for a prolonged period because of an accident on the N7. The aforementioned enhanced vehicle recovery services have been introduced to counter situations such as the one the Deputy described. We have also introduced variable speed limits which have the effect of reducing congestion.

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