Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

That is all the time he wants. I am willing to share more with him, but he says he only needs a minute. I may not take my full time because I appreciate that other Members wish to contribute.

I wish the Minister well in what he is trying to do. I want him to do well because the country needs the changes he is proposing to work. He appears extremely confident that they will work. Time will tell because we have seen the mess we have right now coming for some time.

It is hard to have confidence this Government will deliver a project that will actually work because the M50 has been neglected for so many years. I live beside it and was a member of Fingal County Council. We have worked for many years at trying to address the problems of the M50 and surrounding areas. The delay in getting anything done underlines my lack of confidence in this Government's ability to deliver the changes that are necessary, such as road widening and upgrading at the interchanges. It was obvious for many years that such work was necessary.

I realise that when the M50 was built we did not have funding to build the interchanges that were required, such as flyovers rather than roundabouts with traffic lights at the Red Cow and Blanchardstown intersections. At Fingal County Council, we spoke about that for many years. However, with the good economy that this country has now enjoyed for some years, faster progress should have been made to ensure that the work on the interchanges was carried out to deal with the problems on the M50, which are located not just at the toll bridge but at the access points to the road.

I also ask the Minister for Transport — I am sorry that he is now leaving the House — to consider the provision of an outer ring road. Not much has been said about that proposal in this debate, but we have been consistent over the years in pointing out the urgent need for such a road. When the M50 was built people thought that no other outer ring road would be needed, but we have known for many years that we need another ring road to go out as far as Celbridge.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, but I am not convinced that the Ministers will make the necessary changes to bring about the free flow of traffic on the M50. I suspect the problem will simply be moved from one area to another. If the Minister's plan is simply to remove toll barriers from one point of the M50, why does he not do that? His logic is lost on me, as I cannot see how that will result in the improvements that are necessary.

I recently visited San Francisco and travelled along the bridge that connects the airport to the city. I am not referring to the Oakland Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge but to another bridge that also runs for miles but whose name is difficult to remember. I noticed that, as on many other toll bridges around the world, incentives such as car pooling are promoted. We have never tried car pooling, which can be successful on roads as well as on toll bridges, so I ask the Minister to consider introducing such incentives. That bridge in San Francisco also has tolling in one direction, so drivers pay the toll going one direction but do not pay it on their way back. Again, pressure on the toll booths would be relieved if that kind of thing was introduced.

The delay in bringing about the necessary changes, which have been obvious to all concerned for a long time, should be a source of shame for the Government. Our motion highlights the hold-ups the delay has caused. The necessary changes were laid out in that great document A Platform for Change, but the plans have simply gathered dust or been reinvented in new forms such as Transport 21. No doubt we will see other such documents with the same proposals and projects year after year. We want to see implementation of the plans and some co-ordination among the bodies concerned.