andMr. Faulkner asked the Minister for the Environment if he will urgently consider providing the necessary finance for phases 3 and 4 of the inner relief road in Dundalk to alleviate the traffic congestion in the town.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dundalk Relief Road.
10.
Consideration of the proposals for phases 3 and 4 has been deferred pending experience of the traffic patterns in the area following completion of phase 2. Deputies will have noted from the new road plan, which I published on 29 January, that it is intended to provide a major by-pass of Dundalk in any event.
Would the Minister agree that unless phases 3 and 4 of the inner relief road are completed phases 1 and 2 will be ineffective and traffic using phases 1 and 2 will reach a bottleneck and cause congestion?
I cannot agree fully with what the Deputy says. What we are doing I consider reasonable, that is seeing what effect the flows of traffic will have when phase 2 is completed. When that is done the efficiency or otherwise of the completed plan can be examined. In any event, we intend to build a by-pass at Dundalk.
Surely the Minister will agree that the traffic will flow along phases 1 and 2 when phase 2 is completed and will reach a very narrow area and unless something is done about that there is bound to be a pile-up of traffic and the effectiveness of phases 1 and 2 will be lost. The Minister said that his decision on phases 3 and 4 will relate to the by-pass. Unless that is to come reasonably soon there is no point in it. Are phases 3 and 4 to be held up awaiting something which may not happen for quite a considerable time?
The completion of the by-pass after 1987 is the proposal that has been adopted and as the Deputy knows this work will result in re-routing the traffic that is causing much of the problem in Dundalk. I think he will agree that we should wait until we find how the second phase operates before proceeding with phases 3 and 4. Then we can decide if these other two phases are necessary.
Has the Minister information relating to the volume of traffic passing through the town of Dundalk daily? The M1 is the busiest route in the country. The money spent on phases 1 and 2 will have been spent in vain unless phases 3 and 4 are proceeded with immediately because until this extra work is completed there will be a bottleneck at Castletown Bridge.
The proposals for roads in the Dundalk area have been designed to eliminate that bottleneck. The outer by-pass of the town is the obvious solution to the problem. The Government have agreed that this work should be proceeded with. This would be the real answer to the problem of congestion in the town.
This must be the final supplementary.
May we take it from what the Minister has said that phases 3 and 4 will not be proceeded with?
I have not said that.
I have outlined what will be proceeded with.
Surely the Minister agrees with the unanimous decision of Dundalk Urban Council in the matter of having phases 3 and 4 completed. He will accept, I am sure, that the councillors know what they are talking about.
I have indicated the reasoning behind proceeding with the outer by-pass but we are waiting to see what the flow of traffic will be after phase 2 has been completed. I have indicated how we are viewing the situation and what is being done. When phase 2 has been completed I expect the position will be vastly different and we can decide then whether phases 3 and 4 are necessary.