Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I second the motion.

I start with a quote from Ms Luas Lane, in a recent letter to The Irish Times, in an Irishman's Diary – alias Mr. Kevin Myers. She asks the question: "And why has Ireland made its prime national route less like a Spaghetti Junction and more like macaroni cheese out of a tin?"

The recent news dispatches about the Red Cow roundabout, to which my colleague, Senator McDowell referred, are amusing. However, they are not amusing for all of us who are caught up in the daily traffic jams in Dublin and beyond. To use the words of the Tánaiste, I find the whole thing incredible. In one dispatch, stilts at the Red Cow roundabout are announced. On another day a spaghetti junction is disclosed and more recently there is the €300 million plan for the Red Cow roundabout. All this information is piecemeal. It is as if there is a change every week. I find the whole situation incredible.

Let us take the plans for a spaghetti junction at the Red Cow roundabout. A public consultation procedure by South Dublin County Council and the National Roads Authority took place about two years ago. How could the Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, not have known about the plans for a spaghetti junction? Suddenly, the Tánaiste finds the proposals for the Red Cow roundabout incredible. She represents the constituency in which the Red Cow roundabout is located. As a member of the Government and a public representative for the area how could she not have known the position with regard to the roundabout and the plans for the future?