asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport if, having regard to the problems of traffic co-ordination in the greater Dublin area, he will reestablish the Dublin Transportation Authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Greater Dublin Traffic Co-ordination.
13.
I have no plans to reestablish the Dublin Transport Authority.
The co-ordination of efforts to minimise traffic congestion and to improve traffic circulation in Dublin is now the responsibility of the Dublin Transportation Task Force. Since their reconstitution by Government decision in January 1988, the task force have been required to co-ordinate and integrate on a non-statutory basis the activities of the various official bodies involved in traffic management and the provision of public transport in Dublin, to devise and fund new traffic management and bus priority schemes, where necessary, and by these and other appropriate means to fight traffic congestion and promote and facilitate the use of public transport.
The task force are quite rightly interpreting their mandate in the broadest sense. For example, they continue to pursue the key objective of improved traffic law enforcement, and have taken steps to ensure that transportation aspects are fully taken into account by the Dublin planning authorities, both as regards general policy and its application in particular instances.
The task force's chairman reports to me regularly on progress and I am satisfied that they are functioning as an efficient and extremely cost-effective means of achieving significant progress in areas which were central to the role envisaged for the former transport authority. Consequently, and in view of the need to use our limited resources as wisely and productively as possible, I see no compelling case for re-establishing a statutory Dublin Transport Authority. In any event, the perceived need for intervention by such a body in the transport planning area has been largely obviated by subsequent developments, culminating in the Government's approval, in the context of the National Development Plan 1989-1993, and subject to the availability of assistance from the EC Structural Funds, of a package of measures relating to the improvement of road and rail infrastructure and services in the Dublin area.