asked the Minister for Transport the reason representatives from the Garda Síochána, Dublin Corporation and Dublin County Council have not been included in the interim task force set up to manage Dublin city traffic until the proposed transport authority is formed.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Traffic Task Force.
39.
The Garda Commissioner and the Dublin City and County Managers have each been invited to nominate a representative to the task force.
Can the Minister detail the number of representatives and what status they will have on the task force?
They have asked for the City Manager or, alternatively, for his deputy in charge of traffic but that will be a matter for the City Manager to decide. From the Garda the nominee is the Deputy Commissioner.
Public representatives in the city area receive many representations about traffic and about traffic management. What role does the Minister envisage the elected councillors having vis-à-vis this interim body having regard to the fact that two or three years may elapse before the transportation authority is established?
I should hope that the time involved will not be two or three years but in the interim period the task force will be tackling the problems and recommending to me on the structure, as they see it, for the Dublin Transportation Authority. There was a structure sketched in the Commissioner's report and I am sure the task force will take full account of that proposal in which is included provision for elected representatives.
Can the Minister say——
We have spent a long time on this question.
I do not wish to take up the time of the House but perhaps my question was not put properly. I am talking about the interim period prior to the establishment of the transportation authority. What we have now in effect is an interregnum of bureaucrats with nominees invited from the City Manager and County Manager while the local councillor is the one who must take the stick in regard to traffic regulations. What relationship, if any, will local councillors have to this body of bureaucrats who will report directly to the Minister?
The task force will consult with anybody who has a role to play in trying to put short-term measures into operation as quickly as possible.
In effect, local councillors are being by-passed.
We are talking about a task force to deal with an interim situation.