Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister. He will be familiar with the subject of this Adjournment matter. It concerns the immense difficulties that can be caused in areas surrounding major sporting venues. I wish to focus on Croke Park, parking around that venue for major match fixtures and the work of residents' associations and others in trying to put forward a solution to this problem. When people who do not live adjacent to Croke Park hear me and others describe the difficulty match fixtures can cause they tend to discount our advocacy and describe us as "cranks". They claim it cannot be that bad. However, anybody who lives in the Glasnevin, Drumcondra, Phibsborough, North Strand or East Wall areas is aware of the near chaos that sometimes descends on their areas when a major sporting event takes place in Croke Park.

This chaos can take a number of different forms. In residential areas, it can mean residents being unable to get into or out of their houses if they do not have a parking scheme in place on the road. It can take the form of ambulances and Garda and utility vehicles not being able to gain access to roads and laneways because of illegal parking. An entire residential area is in effect gridlocked out of life when a major sports event takes place in Croke Park. When visitors from other counties come to they stadium, they want parking but, since they do not know the area as well as the residents, they park anywhere there is a space. They are becoming increasingly frustrated over not being allowed to park in estates and neighbourhoods in which they would have been allowed to park in the past. They cannot do so any more because of the parking schemes and double yellow lines in place.

The residents in the area have done great work in organising the local community to do something about the issue. They launched a very successful and well-organised campaign with a view to asking Dublin City Council to put in place a plan for resident-only permit parking within a certain cordon and to have it coincide with the introduction of park-and-ride facilities. It is a very sensible and well thought out plan on which there has been much debate.

I raise this matter because the people involved are not interested in displacing the problem. They recognise the issue is not going away and is getting worse. They have arrived at a pragmatic solution to address it, that is, not to allow people park within a certain area but to provide them with public transport alternatives. This proposal is with Dublin City Council and, for a number of different reasons, it is unlikely to be implemented in the near future. Given that the Department of Transport and the Dublin Transport Authority are to try to deliver co-ordinated strategies to respond to congestion problems in the city and the Dublin region, I implore them to take a leadership role regarding the issue and recognise that it is serious and affects residents' quality of life. There is no reason a sensible plan, if well implemented, could not make life a lot easier for them and the people visiting Croke Park to enjoy a great day out. The kinds of problems we are creating for both the residents and visitors are intolerable given the kinds of steps we are able to take as a country.

I thank the Minister of State for attending and I would appreciate his response.