Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was not expecting this proposal. The Leader may laugh but it is not a laughing matter. Now that it has been made, I accept it and it is the correct thing to do because allotting one and a half hours to discuss transport is a sick joke. This is especially the case, given the fact that the Order of Business provides plenty of time for bad legislation to be further progressed. I accept that it is a happy coincidence in that regard but coincidence it is, and I support it.

People might think the BusConnects programme is all parochial and is all about people's front garden, their trees and things like that but it is a triumph of engineers who do not know what they are doing but who will make the situation in Dublin far, far worse. Most Members of this House would know the Lower Rathmines Road. It is proposed to make it into a one-way road out of the city centre. I have to declare a ludicrous interest in this. All the traffic that goes into the city down the Lower Rathmines Road at the moment is supposed to go past my front gate in future and feed into the traffic at Ranelagh. That is a recipe for absolute chaos and it is not just a matter for leafy Ranelagh. There is a very narrow place beside the old Meath hospital called Long Lane, which comprises mainly artisan's cottages scattered along a winding road down which one would have difficulty getting a truck. Heytesbury Street is to be cut off and Long Lane, which is almost a residential boreen, is to be made the main traffic artery into the city centre.