Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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556. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his view on whether the capacity of the M50 may be exceeded in the near future; his plans to ease traffic congestion in Dublin; if he is considering new toll points on the M50; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44040/14]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme.  The planning, design and implementation of individual road projects, such as the M50  is a matter for the National Roads Authority (NRA) under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

In April 2014, the NRA published its Demand Management Report in conjunction with the four local authorities.  Substantial investment has been made in increasing the M50's capacity and there are no proposals at present for further investment in additional capacity. Apart from multipoint tolling the NRA Demand Management report also includes other measures specific to the effective operation of the M50 which merit consideration. These include:

- the use of a variable speed limit so that the speed limit could be dropped to say 80 km/h at peak times thus improving the carrying capacity of the road

- ramp metering which would effectively limit the flow of traffic (using traffic signals) on to the M50 at interchanges

- Smarter Travel Planning measures.

As regards multi point tolling on the M50 it is my position that no new tolls will be introduced during my term as Minister for Transport.The likely impact of multi-point tolling would be to push vehicles on to other roads and through local communities.  Looking to the future and increased travel demand as the economy recovers further we will need to address congestion across the Greater Dublin Area, and not just on the M50. 

In August my Department  published a draft Strategic Framework for Investment in Land Transport document for public comment.  The intention is that the Strategic Framework for Investment in Land Transport, when finalised, will inform how issues such as demand management measures will be dealt with in the future.