Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

There is considerable disquiet in the communities on the west and south of the city about what has taken place at Carrickmines. The effect has been that Dundrum is now totally bottlenecked, since the M50 exits there, not being able to go any further east across the city. In my constituency, when the M50 stopped at Templeogue, the whole area was clogged up. The problem is not simply one for commuters, since the entire adjoining area is clogged up with rat-running and cars travelling through the area. When the next section from Templeogue was opened, it led to an entirely different environmental situation in Templeogue. We must therefore address this issue. There is no point in our pretending, on either side of the House, that this is not a problem. It must be addressed. Thousands of households are affected in the west and south of the city. One way to do it is to realise that we have a total of over 120,000 sites of importance throughout the country. There must be some way of grading what is significant and what is not. A pile of stones is not as significant as an important small settlement.