If the House agrees I would like to give three minutes of my time to my colleague Deputy Stafford who is Chairman of Dublin Port and who has a considered view to offer on this matter.
Adjournment Debate. - Dublin Road Project.
Is that satisfactory? Agreed.
My concern is that this country needs to spend £8.5 billion in order to bring our road system up to a satisfactory standard. A great deal of that money will need to be spent in the greater Dublin area, and most of it needs to be spent as quickly as possible so as to close the gap in transportation costs between this part of the EC and the rest of the Community. It is estimated that transportation charges for our goods impose a surcharge of approximately 10 per cent on the cost of our goods comparative to other goods in the rest of the EC.
What is at issue here is a decision by Dublin City Council to authorise Dublin Corporation officials to undertake consultancy studies for what is now referred to as the port relief road. Those studies will, at a minimum, cost between £200,000 and £300,000 and I understand that the Minister for the Environment has sanctioned that expenditure.
My first question to the Minister is to establish whether he has sanctioned that expenditure. If it has been sanctioned, I put it to him that it represents a gross waste of taxpayers' money. There is no guarantee that the money will be recouped in whole or in part from the EC through the technical provisions support. I fully recognise that Dublin city in general, and Dublin port in particular, have a transportation problem. The competent road authority for the city, Dublin Corporation, should take action now to relieve that problem. The proposal to undertake these exhaustive studies was adopted by the city council after they had published their draft development plan. It is, by their admission, a proposal which will not bear fruit for at least ten years. I do not believe Dublin city, and in particular Dublin port, can afford to wait that long.
My second point of criticism is that the available managerial resources — frequently we hear complaints of how overstretched they are in Dublin city and county — should be devoted to completing what is an absolute necessity, the western motorway box, linking the Dublin-Belfast road with the intermediate roads and across to the N11 that will link north Dublin with Wicklow and on to Rosslare. It should be borne in mind that at management level there is an integrated, shared management between the three Dublin local authorities — Dún Laoghaire is a part of the structure.
I can recall from my time as Minister of State at the Department of the Environment that capital expenditure was never a constraint on Dublin's local authorities in completing the western side of the box. Managerial incompetence and engineering obsessions have delayed the acquiring of land and the implementation of design proposals. It is a scandal that the Southern Cross Route will not be operational until 1995, if one accepts the figures that have been made available. If the last part of the link along the western part of the motorway box was put in place some, but not all, of the transport problems of Dublin city and region would be significantly relieved.
In the submissions that the technical officials of Dublin Corporation made to various residents' groups, backed up by a video — I compliment them on the video — they argued that a substantial portion of the cost of the road will be recouped from the EC Structural Funds. I should like to ask the Minister of State to confirm that the Commission regard the completion of the eastern by-pass — I refuse to give it its new cosmetic name of the port relief road — as a part of the national infrastructure which will qualify for what they have referred to as a measure to offset the condition of peripherality which we find ourselves in vis-à-vis the rest of the Community. It is my contention that that road is a commuter road running from St. Helen's in Booterstown to Whitehall on the north side. If there is access from that road to Dublin city the vast bulk of traffic from the south side will be commuter traffic and I do not believe that the German taxpayer, or the Council of Ministers for the Environment and Transport, will give us money to offset the discomfort of south county Dublin commuters. Will the Minister confirm that the road qualifies for major national road categorisation under the national plan?
According to the CII newsletter of 17 October 1989 the road was not listed in the schedule of major road improvement projects for 1989-93. On the question of costs, I should like to say that the consultancy study will cost up to £400,000 which, in the first instance, will have to be paid by Dublin Corporation. If I contact the maintenance department of Dublin Corporation I am told there is a three months delay on basic maintenance and they are not in a position to send a plumber to repair a broken toilet or the sink in an old person's house due to a lack of funds. There is no doubt that the consultants will recommend the construction in some shape or form of a major road which will cost, in today's terms, £200 million. The plan submitted to Brussels by the Government for port access roads suggest an expenditure of £300 million. By comparison, the total cost of completing the western motorway box from the M1 to the N11, on the basis of published figures, will be £150 million.
I hesitate to interrupt the Deputy but I should like to point out to him that if it is his intention to concede time to another Deputy he ought to consider doing that now.
This is bad value for Dublin city and the taxpayer and it will not solve the very thing that will bring Deputy Stafford to his feet, the problems of Dublin port.
I should like to thank Deputy Quinn for giving me some of his time. I am chairman of the Dublin Port Authority and I have no doubt about the need for this road, particularly the north fringe, from Whitehall to Dublin port. Environmentally it would be to the advantage of the city. We cannot allow narrow roads to carry heavy traffic. I am referring to such roads as the Clonliffe Road, the East Wall Road and the Malahide Road which carry very heavy vehicles daily. As we approach 1992 we will have to make every effort to double our exports if we are to keep our employment on the right track. I accept that we must spend money to ascertain if the proposed road will cause damage in the area it will pass through, but the most important matter to be considered is that the port of Dublin will not survive if the new road is not constructed. The port authority have plans to expand their services by the installation of new cranes and back-up services but that investment will be wasted if the access to the port is not improved. Most of the heavy traffic in Dublin is from east to west and the commuter traffic is from north to south and we must change that trend. It may be necessary to introduce a charge on commuter traffic using the road in the port area.
I should like to explain briefly what is involved here. In December 1987 my Department requested Dublin Corporation to undertake a traffic survey of Dublin port and the Custom House docks area. That study, which was finalised last October, includes recommendations relating to road construction projects, public transport and parking. Among the main recommendations, were the construction of port access from the airport road to the North Wall, a study of a location for an extra river crossing and an extension of the road to Booterstown.
This proposal and the Dublin Ring Road would complete a high standard road around the city. It is envisaged that houses will not be demolished and the work will involve extensive tunnelling at Grace Park Road, Griffith Avenue, Fairview Village and Fairview Park. Last January the city council agreed to include the recommendations in the traffic study as amendments to the Dublin City draft development plan of 1987 which will go on public display within the next three to four months. In the meantime, as directed by the city council, the corporation are proceeding with an environmental impact feasibility study relating to the line of the traffic of the entire route.
The corporation intend to engage consultants to carry out the feasibility study and I understand that they will very shortly submit their proposals to my Department for approval concerning the scope and terms of reference for the study. We understand that the cost — approximately £300,000 — will be met by State road grants and will not be an imposition on the corporation's resources. A grant of £200,000 is being provided in 1990 for this purpose.
The draft operational programme for roads and other transport infrastructures which has been submitted to the EC Commission provides for the commencement of the construction of an access route to Dublin Port in 1993 at an estimated cost of £96 million extending from the M1 in Whitehall to Dublin Port, East Wall Road. The estimated cost of the entire route from Whitehall to Booterstown is £150 million to £200 million approximately.
Generally I do not consider the proposed expenditure for these studies to be extravagant as we are talking about planning a major road project. I am sure Deputies will agree that these studies are essential before any major road works scheme commences, particularly when the scheme will cost between £150 million to £200 million. In the context of expenditure of that magnitude proposed further studies costing £300,000 constitute a small integral part of the process in which roadworks can be designed.
The west link section road from Navan Road to the Galway Road and the section from the Galway Road to the Naas Road are now open. A further section from the Naas Road to Tallaght is expected to be completed by the end of August or early September. A public inquiry into the Northern Cross motorway will be held in late June concerning the Naas Road to the airport. A motorway scheme for the Southern Cross route is being completed by Dublin County Council for submission to the Department of the Environment which I hope will be available as soon as possible.
In view of the expenditure which I outlined a sum of £300,000 is very small.