Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Everybody appreciates the hard work the Taoiseach and his team have put into Brexit, particularly the work of the officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and his Department. That said, there is serious fear in Dublin about the gridlock that will occur on the M50 and in the Port Tunnel. Currently, 10,000 lorries and 15,000 cars use the tunnel each day. A number of suggestions have been made, such as parking at the big Dublin Airport car parks and parking on the hard shoulder on both sides of the tunnel. Let us consider the experience on the M50 at peak hours in the mornings and evenings. It is so congested that most people try to avoid it like the plague. It is like a slow-moving car park. There are endless small collisions and bumps between cars simply because people are stop-start driving. In bad wet weather such as we have had recently, it is a nightmare.

We discussed a potential resolution for this previously. I acknowledge that much work has been done in Dublin Port, but why are Rosslare, Waterford and Cork not being prepared to take all the south of Ireland traffic? If that could be done, it would remove significant pressure from Dublin and free up space at Dublin Port in respect of Northern Ireland hauliers who might want to use the port in the context of it being European in the future. I realise that this is expensive. It is absolutely crazy. We must also have direct shipping to France and Spain. That can be done from Cork and Rosslare. The Taoiseach said previously that he does not believe the demand exists for it, but has he had an opportunity to review what the reality will be in the event of the UK going out of alignment in a serious way and the potential problems in ports such as Calais with traffic crossing over and back between the UK and the Continent?

See this speech in context