Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. As he was able to agree with me regarding some aspects of the reply, I am able to agree with him, but the devil is in the detail. I want to put one or two of those details into play. The NTA is engaged in a consultation process but has not yet contacted everybody. A public meeting on Monday night heard that one owner had received no communication from the NTA. The very first interaction the owner had with the NTA was at a public meeting about a compulsory purchase order of land owned by that person. This is a disgrace.

The NTA is making an effort on one level, but on another level it started a consultation on a route process and has not finished. It has moved to the second phase of a consultation about another part of the plan. Many people, and the Minister might think them cynical, might be a bit worried about an organisation that has not even replied to the phase one consultation about the routes but is ploughing on with phase two. Perhaps there is predetermined outcome and we are just being talked to. Are we being listened to? When the NTA comes back, we will have to see how much it has really listened because if it really listens, some of what is being proposed cannot go ahead.

If roads are closed on a 24-7 basis, as currently proposed by the NTA, there will be traffic gridlock in Dublin city. We cannot reverse that overnight. If we destroy communities by building these hyper-lanes down roads that do not need to be built, we cannot reverse that overnight. We have major decisions to make and we need a much greater consultation process and far more involvement from communities. Otherwise, we will have a partial transport solution that does not meet the needs of the commuter and will destroy the communities through which it goes. The NTA needs to slow down and think.

See this speech in context