Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I want to do it in conjunction with the other developments I have referred to in the House. It will make a difference in conjunction with the expansion of the M50. It will be necessary to consider demand management as a feature in traffic control around Dublin in the longer term. This will need to be considered in the context of the completion of many of the developments in Dublin. The M50 was designed to be used by bypass traffic but less than 14% of the traffic using the M50 is bypass traffic. Local traffic accounts for 84% of the traffic even though the motorway was never designed to be so used.

In case of misunderstanding, the route to which I referred recently in the context of the ten-year investment strategy in public transport was not an alternative M50 or a second M50; it is a completely different route with a different purpose. Its impact on the M50 will not be very significant, bearing in mind that the traffic on the M50 is largely local traffic. The route to which I referred has the potential to take traffic trying to bypass Dublin away from Dublin. The route has not been selected. I have asked the NRA to consider the plan and maps have been published in the newspapers which show notional routes from Drogheda cutting across to Navan and Naas. By naming those towns I do not mean that will be the route. This will take true Dublin bypass traffic away from the city. I am not presenting it as a second M50 and it would be wrong to suggest that.