Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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326. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the planning work which has been carried out on a new orbital motorway for Dublin to relieve the growing congestion on the M50; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44656/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Insofar as congestion issues in Dublin are concerned, the National Transport Authority's (NTA) Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area provides the overarching framework for the planning and delivery of transport infrastructure and services over the next two decades. Addressing urban congestion on both the strategic road network and locally in certain locations is an important theme in the Strategy. The measures proposed are linked to an analysis of current and projected levels of travel demand across the region.

The Strategy does not include the implementation of the Leinster Outer Orbital during its lifetime.

Following the mid-term review of the Capital Plan, Budget 2018 provides for an increase in the multi-annual capital investment for public transport with a four-year capital envelope of €2.7 billion over the period 2018-2021. The increased funding will allow roll-out of a number of key programmes to address congestion and emerging capacity constraints on our public transport system across our cities including an investment of over €400 million next year.

This substantial multi-annual envelope will allow investment in a number of key programmes to ease congestion and increase capacity on our public transport network. This includes funding of over €770 million for the BusConnects programme to fundamentally transform Dublin’s bus system, so that journeys for bus passengers will be fast, reliable, punctual, convenient and affordable.

Over €685 million capital investment will also be provided for additional rail infrastructure between now and 2021 to provide additional Luas capacity, improve mainline rail infrastructure and progress DART expansion and new Metro North.