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

The Minister is welcome and I thank him for attending. I know he makes a point of attending for Topical Issue matters and it is very much appreciated.

The M50, the major ring road around Dublin carrying between 100,000 and 150,000 cars every day, is at a standstill at peak times. Accidents which happen cause complete logjams and backlogs and affect both sides of the road, feeder roads and motorway junctions, including those for the M5, the M6 and M1, and have a serious impact on the commuter belt as drivers come into Dublin. In a reply to a parliamentary question some time ago, the Minister said that congestion is estimated to cost this economy some €350 million per year and the figure is growing, not to mention the impact on people's mental and physical health of just sitting in a car or a commercial vehicle for long periods during the day, or the logjam it causes in residential areas which feed into the M50.

That is the problem. However, the answer to the question as to what is the Government's range of solutions is "zero" as of now. All the Government's projects are focused on Project 2040 and no projects are planned for 2018 or 2019 that would relieve traffic congestion on the M50. There is no project to relieve the standstill which people are experiencing. One of the things that was missing from Project 2040 is the eastern bypass, at which we must look again. I am not a major proponent of building huge roads again but that one is the last piece of the jigsaw around Dublin and it needs to be looked at in a serious way. I await the Minister's response.

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