Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On that last point, the Deputy will be aware of the High Court's decision this summer with regard to Strand Road in Sandymount. I will not go into the specific details of that case but there is real concern that the judgment might have a chilling effect on the delivery of our Safe Routes to School infrastructure, our BusConnects infrastructure and other active travel infrastructure, as well as on our decarbonisation plans which require innovative and quick traffic management schemes. To address concerns about any potential chilling effect of the judgment, we have tried to see what we can do to help. We have determined that a Committee Stage amendment to what was the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will now be called the Road Traffic Bill, due for debate this autumn will provide us with an opportunity to give greater clarity and greater responsibility back to councils by giving councillors a clear say on these matters. We will put down in statute mechanisms to allow experimental traffic measures to be carried out which will help councils to innovate and test out various traffic management options. I have asked my Department, in consultation with the Attorney General's office, to start drafting amendments that we may introduce on Committee Stage that might help in that regard.

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