Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me raise this issue this evening.

This may seem a complicated, convoluted and extensive issue, but in fact it is not. It is simple. The problems of traffic congestion in Maynooth that exist at present are severe and affect not only the people of Maynooth and Kilcock but also those further afield who arrive in a traffic snarl-up on the motorway every day. There are also ongoing realignment works on the roads within the town itself. I accept that there will be disruption during reconstruction of any description - one cannot have an omelette without breaking eggs - but the extent of such disruption could be alleviated to some extent with a little attention.

In particular, one realignment of a road has taken the most serious turn that I have ever seen. I do not know who designed it, but the footpath goes in a particular direction and, all of sudden, veers out into the middle of the carriageway for I know not what purpose. Unless the draftsman at the time had some particular obsession with that, somebody should go back and have a look at it again. It is the most ridiculous design I have seen.

There is a simple resolution in the sense that €14.5 million was awarded by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government three years ago to provide for the strategic infrastructure needed for the housing shortage in the area and that is available and ready. The housing development has taken off, so to speak, and is going well. It is now about ready for the two stages of that particular proposal to be activated. I ask that that would be done at the earliest possible date.

Some works have been activated. There is a noise abatement surface proposed for the motorway. I hope that is done in conjunction with whatever upgrading works will be done and that the road will not be uprooted once again.

I would especially emphasise that the capacity of the motorway is long past its maximum and there needs to be something done as a matter of urgency. We hear every morning there is either a crash or a hold-up and the traffic is backed up for four or five miles. There starts the next part of the problem, which is that the traffic coming from Enfield and Mullingar leaves the motorway at Kilcock and returns to the old road, heading towards Maynooth, jamming up the traffic in Maynooth that is already in a bad situation. There is traffic sprayed out in all directions from there, so to speak, creating serious problems and the use of the minor roads.

The responsibility is divided between two Ministers, the Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Housing, Planning and Local Government, who are not here, but to whom the Minister of State will bring the message with a view to ensuring that the works required are taken in hand immediately and any possibility of doing something in the short term is seized on straight away.

The motorway has worked well up to now but it is now incapable of dealing with the volume of traffic. It will remain a problem, just the same as the problem on the N7-N9 for the past ten years. My philosophy in these matters is that if we deal with them in the beginning, we will not have to moan about them in the future. I would say that is an issue that needs to be dealt with quickly. There are two interchanges that are also needed, one of which is a second interchange off the motorway which will greatly resolve the traffic problems and is proposed and provided for already by the local authority.

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