Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I listened to Senator Morrissey, who tried to explain it. In fairness to him, he made a valiant effort. I would hate to put him on the same level but I think he is as confused as I am about what it might be.

The crucial aspect is that the Minister of State told the House earlier that it "will work with existing agencies and within existing governance structures and that it will be the responsibility of the relevant statutory or other agencies to decide whether or not to proceed with projects ...". What is new? The Clare Street initiative is just a new layer on top of what is already there. The Minister of State would be far better off bringing forward the urgent infrastructure Bill, which has been promised for a long time and which could save a great deal of time in other ways.

I wish to begin with two anecdotes for the Minister of State. On the northside of Dublin, the N2 comes straight down through Finglas. As the second of the main arteries of Dublin, it arrives at Harte's Corner where it becomes one lane and shares priority with another road coming from Ballymun. The Minister of State might say that next year the M2 will replace the N2 but that will only treble the problem because it will result in a motorway, rather than a national primary route, coming into one lane at Harte's Corner. The difference here is that there is no road off the N2. In the case of many other roads into the city traffic is filtered off in one way or another, going west or east, or south or north. The N2 has only one final destination, Glasnevin. There is no road off it. The N2 is not working.

My second anecdote relates to my visit to Auckland, which has a traffic congestion problem. Each day at noon a huge machine, which looks a little like a snow-plough, goes out along the main road into town and moves the median across one lane. Instead of there being three lanes into the city and one lane out, the machine facilitates the reverse.