Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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226. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans and timescale for implementing variable speed limits on the M50. [7498/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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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. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015, the planning, design and operation of individual roads is a matter for the relevant road authority in relation to local and regional roads, or for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned, in relation to national roads.

However, with regard to the issue of the implementation of Variable Speed Limits (VSL) on motorways, I can advise that my Department is progressing the legislative arrangements that will provide TII with the necessary powers to regulate and operate VSL on motorways. The legislation is included in the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which is currently under consideration by the Government. Given the importance and priority status of the Government's Brexit legislation, it is not possible to confirm a specific date for the finalisation of this legislation, at this time. In the meantime I am advised that, in order to progress this important measure, TII is extending the motorway traffic control centre at Dublin Tunnel to cater for the additional workload from the introduction of VSL and is currently procuring the management systems and hardware for the operation and roll-out of VSL for the M50. All the preparatory technical and logistical frameworks will need to be in place, by TII, before VSL can be introduced and become operational and as I have outlined, this work is on-going. It is expected that the enabling works which TII is undertaking will be completed in late 2019 or early 2020.