John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, for being here. I appreciate it. I flagged this issue of traffic in College Green as far back as the summer of 2017, and previously, in the context of a directly-elected mayor of the city, that the role of director of transport for Dublin would be a function that would form part of a directly-elected mayor's office. We have discovered, subsequently, with the introduction of the Luas cross city, which I wholeheartedly welcome and which is a considerable asset to the city, that the College Green area is a significant pinch point in relation to traffic.

The introduction of Luas cross city has seen it become a victim of its own success but the Minister will have to agree that it is also a victim of horrendously poor forward planning. As an ordinary citizen, as a layman, I have been able to see the kind of challenges that the city would face pending the introduction of the Luas cross city and there does not seem to have been any significant forward planning, in terms of modelling to understand the kind of numbers that Luas cross city would take up and in terms of its impact on bus users, car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. I wonder how come this was not envisaged because it has left a glaring gap. What has happened is that all the authorities within the city, the National Transportation Authority, NTA, Dublin Bus along with Luas cross city, and Dublin City Council, are now reacting, as is always the case in this country, in particular, in regard to Dublin, and are trying to plan their way out of what has become a chaotic and congested city and suburbs.

Last year my Private Members' motion calling for a Dublin city traffic advisory council was passed unanimously by the Dáil but there has been no movement on this. That was guaranteed to give every stakeholder in Dublin an input into traffic management and the design of traffic solutions in Dublin.

The city clearly needs, and this College Green issue has highlighted it, a director of transport and an office of director of traffic to set out plans and to help address congestion from the suburbs, for example, from my own constituency, Ballycullen, Knocklyon and Scholarstown, right into the city and the College Green area. The absence of a directly-elected mayor feeds into that, in spite of the fact the former Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, promised that the city, if Dublin so decided in a plebiscite, would get to directly-elected mayor to coincide with the local elections due in 2019.

Clearly, as far as Dubliners are concerned, there is no vision for traffic management in the county or in the city. There is no vision for how trams, buses, cars, commercial vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians are to share the public space that we all, in various shapes and forms, use and absolutely no plan for and no input from those with disabilities or special needs.

The College Green area involves specific challenges. Three hundred buses an hour at peak time, or 3,000 buses a day, use College Green. The NTA and Dublin Bus announced certain changes to 17 routes, redirecting them around by either Westland Row or Tara Street, and that the NTA will give additional priority to buses on Tara Street, and I cautiously welcome that.

We will have to wait and see what the ultimate impact will be on the west of the city, but what will we do with the quays? For example, some mornings it takes 40 minutes to get from Heuston Station to O'Connell Street and it is quicker for those who use the bus to get off at O'Connell Street and walk rather than to wait for the bus to bring them to Dawson Street. There is a huge problem crying out there.

There are pedestrians facing significant delays crossing at major traffic pinch points. While there may be some offering as a solution, I, as Dublin spokesperson for Fianna Fáil, have highlighted this issue going back a year.

This is also in anticipation of when longer the Luas trams come into operation. As the Minister well knows, those longer Luas trams, while they will bring a welcome increase in capacity as the existing trams accommodate 320 passengers and the longer trams will accommodate 380, will cause significant pinch points at O'Connell Bridge and in other areas. I do not see any plans to anticipate what might address the problems that will be caused by the additional length of the Luas cross city.

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