Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 793: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the analysis the National Transport Authority has carried out to model traffic projection over the next ten years in the greater Dublin area; and if in the absence of the introduction of the Dublin metro system and the east wall rail interconnector, the way he expects to avoid major traffic congestion on the M50 and other strategic sections of the road network should there be an increase in traffic volumes due to a return to economic growth in the same time period. [20482/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Under the provisions of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has, as a statutory function, the undertaking of strategic planning of transport in the Greater Dublin Area. Section 12 of that Act requires the NTA to prepare a strategic transport plan for the Greater Dublin Area.

I understand that in the preparation of a draft strategic transport plan, which was published for consultation in draft form during 2011, the NTA carried out considerable analysis of projected transport demands throughout the region and assessment of various proposals to address those demands. I further understand that the horizon year for that analysis was 2030, being the end of the proposed strategic plan period that was selected by the NTA. I am also informed by the NTA that the work carried out on that plan did include assessment of various measures against what is termed a "do-minimum" scenario, being the scenario that would be expected to happen in the absence of various proposals being implemented. It is the case that the non-development of certain public transport projects would, in the longer term, result in increased car usage along those corridors. However, in the case of Metro North and DART Underground schemes, these projects have not been cancelled. The position is clearly stated in the Government's Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Medium-term Exchequer Framework, in relation to these schemes that "they are being postponed for consideration in advance of the next capital programme which will be drawn up in 2015 and will cover the period from 2016 onwards."

In relation to the M50 motorway, the planning consent granted for the M50 upgrade requires that a scheme of specific demand management measures for the motorway corridor is published by the relevant road authorities no later than three years after the upgrade has been completed. The overall M50 upgrade project was completed in September 2010.

A group comprising officials from Dublin City Council, South Dublin, Fingal, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and the NRA has been set up to examine the implementation of measures that would meet the requirements of the Bord Pleanála decision.