Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for his contribution. There are several issues I want to raise with him.Firstly, the Taoiseach has recently said that he is open to considering rerouting the southern leg of the MetroLink proposal to other suburbs of Dublin. I think he mentioned the axis running by UCD. Is the Minister's Department considering such an option? If so, will there be a consultation process about this?

Secondly, I wish to raise the BusConnects proposal. I appreciate that one cannot make an omelette without cracking eggs and a great deal of NIMBYism arises in some quarters in response to proposed change of any kind. That said, it is only when one looks at the small print of the proposals that one becomes aware of some of the more significant features of the BusConnects programme currently under discussion. Precisely what is involved is not very clear from the published materials. One has to have some technical expertise to understand some of the implications. During the Order of Business today I gave two examples which relate to my own area. One of these was the proposal to turn Rathmines Road into a one-way system leading out of town and rely on Ranelagh Road and Charleston Road, right outside my house, as the means of getting into town from Rathgar, Rathmines and Ranelagh. It is not practical. Ranelagh Road cannot take the volume of traffic that would be diverted to it. I do not see any consideration of the knock-on effects of the proposed bus corridors in the BusConnects programme. I do not see any analysis of how much extra vehicle activity will take place in Ranelagh as a consequence, or whether Ranelagh can sustain it. That is just one example.

I looked at this single route further and discovered that closer to the city centre it is proposed to make Heytesbury Street into an area for local access only and divert traffic down a very small road. The Minister may or may not know this road. It is called Long Lane. It is effectively a lane at the northern side of the Meath hospital. It is narrower than this Chamber. It is very narrow.