Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleague Senator Murphy in welcoming the Minister's announcement about the hot school meals programme yesterday. This is very positive and 28 schools in my own area of Kildare have now joined the list. This is a tremendous result for Kildare and in particular for the children for whom it will ensure a hot meal each day in primary school. There is also a knock-on effect that Bradbury's bakery in my home town of Athy is providing a lot of those hot meals and providing employment as another knock-on effect of that. That is to be welcomed. It is not just there but also in other companies throughout the State that this programme has provided employment for a lot of people. There was a big announcement in Tipperary regarding this recently. As well as the positivity around schoolchildren there is also a positivity around employment and that is to be very much welcomed.There was a big announcement in this regard in County Tipperary recently. As well as the positivity around schoolchildren, then, there is also the positivity around employment. This is very much to be welcomed.

I also wish to ask for a debate with the Minister for Transport in relation to the arterial motorways leading into the capital city and the situation with traffic on them each morning. I raise this issue because yesterday, once again, I was part of the car park that the M7 and N7 have become leading into our capital city. This is happening regularly. I ask the Minister for Transport, the NRA and TII to immediately consider having an emergency vehicle on standby every morning on our arterial roads to ensure we get the traffic on them moving. Yesterday morning, what happened was that the car of one unfortunate commuter broke down right in the middle of the motorway and this resulted in traffic being held up for an hour and a half. I was contacted by many people yesterday who had been late for hospital appointments, work etc.

It would seem to me there is a very simple solution. If somebody was on standby on the motorway, then a car in this type of situation could be removed from the middle of a lane. This would help the motorist concerned but also the hundreds and possibly thousands of people delayed coming into Dublin, as was the case yesterday. I think this is a very easy solution to implement. I am told it works in other countries. It is definitely worth considering. This problem affects not just the N7 but also the N4 and all the arterial routes into Dublin. We are still waiting on updates on public transport and on the prices of public transport, but in the meantime, the motorways are being clogged up each morning, unfortunately, by minor accidents. Our emergency services do a great job in relation to major accidents, but these minor accidents need to be looked at. An emergency vehicle needs to be on standby. This would make a difference to those people involved in minor accidents and also allow other road users to get to hospital appointments or to work and not be sitting in their cars for up to two hours.