Greens hit out at increased road building
The public needs to know the Government is planning a national primary road through the Wicklow mountains, Green Party TD Eamon Ryan warned today.
Mr Ryan said the latest transport plans for the Greater Dublin area would lead to more road building at the expense of public transport.
“The Government are now talking about a national primary road over the Wicklow Mountains, maybe through the Sally Gap,” the Dublin South TD said.
“People said the Glen of the Downes protesters were mad but will they say the same to protesters when we’re building roads through the Wicklow Mountains?”
Under the regional planning guidelines, the metropolitan area of Dublin will be developed further and towns in the hinterland area – like Navan, Drogheda, Naas and Wicklow – will be expanded and linked using major new roads.
Mr Ryan said Dublin was already developing as a ‘Doughnut city,’ with housing clustered around the M50 motorway, and would now become even more car-dependent.
The Greens Transport spokesman also criticised Transport Minister Seamus Brennan for spending four times more on roads than public transport.
The minister had opened 12 new road projects during his two years in office - and another link road in Dublin today – but just one public transport project, he claimed.
Green MEP Patricia McKenna said the regional planning guidelines would accelerate urban sprawl from Dublin and create a city even more dependent on cars.
“Dublin is following neither the example of Berlin nor Boston but is becoming more akin to Bangkok, where people arrange their lives around the endless traffic jams that dominate that city,” she said.
Trinity College lecturer Professor James Wickham said the poor would suffer if car ownership became a necessity in the Greater Dublin area. He added that a recent study had shown that Dublin parents spent longer commuting in their cars than in many other European cities.
“It’s all very well talking about work/life balance but what if work involves sitting in a car?” he asked.
Around 75% of middle-class Dublin workers are driving to work in their cars compared to 47% in Helsinki, Finland and 50% in Bologna, Italy.
Professor Wickham said the European cities with the best public transport had a dedicated transport authority and did not rely on ministers ‘drawing lines on a map’.
Green Party TD Eamon Ryan said a radical change in transport policy would be a precondition for the Greens to enter any coalition government in the future.
“A €10bn road investment programme is being carried out on the basis of no analysis. We should go back to investing in public transport on a massive scale,” he said.
However, he ruled out the introduction of congestion charging in Dublin until there were specific public transport alternatives available.
Mr Ryan said he would like to see the other parties including Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour have a proper debate on the current transport policy.
However, a spokesman for Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said the Green Party’s claims about the level of spending on roads were incorrect.
“The minister has agreed two financial envelopes for the next 10 years with Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy – €7bn for roads and €3.5bn for public transport. That is a 2:1 ratio, not a 4:1 ratio.”
He added the minister had overseen a €1bn investment in the rail services to upgrade tracks and carriages and financed the forthcoming 30% expansion in DART services in Dublin.
“We’ve invested hugely in public transport but for the growth of the country, motorways are vital economic corridors,” he said.
