Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I go around the M50 sometimes in desperation, trying to avoid coming in on the main, direct route. Therefore, I enter the M50, turn right and come in through Templeogue. On the main road from Clondalkin to the M50 roundabout there is a big sign telling one to take the right-hand lane if turning right, that is, going to the M50. Once in that lane, one discovers that the construction of the Luas has closed off the lane which the main signpost tells one to take if one wants to get onto the M50. Who plans those things? That is the fundamental problem with this country and this city's traffic. People are planning grand constructs without thinking about the implications and the impact on ordinary citizens. One can go through this to the point of tedium.

The current policy about the M50 which changes from week to week, from spaghetti junction to stilts, is bad enough. However, newspaper reports suggest that the National Roads Authority and the Railway Procurement Agency have an occasional semaphore exchange of vague intentions when they should be working hand in glove. If they are incapable of doing so, it is the responsibility of the Minister who will not come to this House to talk about it. If they cannot work out an agreed coherent position, they should be made to do so or be fired. The idea that two agencies are discussing the most difficult roundabout in Dublin through occasional communication with one another sums up all that is contained in the Labour Party motion. The Government amendment says no more than that it is doing more than zero and that, therefore, it is very good. However, the citizens of this country and city deserve a proper performance which has not yet materialised.