“Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín today, in leaders questions, tackled the Tánaiste on the worsening gridlock in the Greater Dublin Area. An Teachta Tóibín stated:
The whole Greater Dublin region is grinding to a halt. If you stand on one of the M50 bridges on any given morning, looking south or north, stationary lines of cars stretch out as far as the eye can see.
The cost of congestion in Dublin will reach €1.5 billion by 2040.
Dublin is ranked as the worst capital in Europe in terms of time and money wasted because of traffic congestion. Average speed of cars in Dublin city at 12km/h. This was slower than that of the horse-drawn carriages of the 19th century. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in a commuter hell.
Parents are gone from their homes from 6 in the morning to well after 7 in the evening. They are lucky to get home in time to put their kids to bed. Its adding to the anxiety of children to be separated from their parents for so long. Volunteerism is dying as many parents haven’t the time of the energy for community activities. The traffic disaster in the Greater Dublin area is grinding people down.
The return journey for tens of thousands of people from Meath is now often taking 4.5 hours. Its heading towards a 5 hour return journey. Think about it, 20 hours a week commuting to for a 40 hour working week.
Meath is the biggest commuter county in the country. Its the only county in the country where the majority of workers leave the county to go to work. 90,000 Meath people commute to work. 60,000 of are forced to use cars for the lack of a rail line. Indeed, Navan is the largest town in the country without a rail line.
In 1994 FF’s Noel Dempsey promised to build a rail line between Navan to Dublin. It Now being promised by Aisling Dempsey, Noel’s daughter. Its become an intergenerational political promise. At the current rate of delivery, it will be 42 years from concept to completion. People will have started work in their 20s when it was announced and will be retired and drawing the pension before its complete.
In 1862, the original Navan to Dublin Rail line was built in three years with picks and shovels. 42 years with all the technology that exists today and 3 years with picks and shovels in the 1860s.
Yesterday the government launched the National Development Plan Review. There was one mention of the Navan to Dublin Rail line. The mention added nothing new in terms of its progress. It commits no money to the project. It bizarrely it talks about building stations, even though no route has been selected.
On Thursday the 4th of December there will be a public meeting of the Meath on Track Campaign. Will you commit the Minister for Transport to attend this meeting to listen to the people of Meath?
Question 2
The National Development Review means nothing, Tánaiste . At the very best it will mean that the rail line could be built by 2036. There is already a landowner is threatening a Judicial Review which will blow that date out of the water.
Indeed, the project is in reverse. The Railway Order for the project promised for 2026, will now be submitted at the end of 2027. There has been an increase in budget, but it comes after 10 years of Ireland being second from the floor in the EU in terms of investment.
Your government cannot build key infrastructure in a timely fashion. Your government has created one of the slowest planning, permitting, licencing, tendering and judicial review systems in the EU.
Your response to workers stuck in commuter hell is actually to jack up tolls and fuel taxes.
The government is not listening. Some people in Meath are suggesting that to make the government listen there should be a toll strike, a refusal to pay tolls. Others say that the traffic should be blocked in Dublin because your government are blocking their traffic every morning. I don’t want to see disruption. Will you commit at the very least to listen to the people. Will you commit the Minister for Transport to attend the Meath on Track Public meeting tomorrow week and listen to the people living in commuter hell”. CRIOCH
