Major improvements in public transport such as Luas and commuter rail services must be accelerated to relieve traffic congestion in the Dublin area, according to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey.
Speaking yesterday at the official opening of Dublin Corporation's new traffic control centre, he estimated that £750 million also needs to be spent over the next five years to complete the M50 and related motorway network.
The corporation maintains that its computerised traffic control centre, installed in the Civic Offices at a cost of £300,000, is the most modern facility of its type anywhere and that it should help to bring some order to a city clogged by traffic.
The new centre provides a hub for the various traffic management systems in which £8 million has been invested in recent years. These include a network of high-level closed circuit cameras on all main routes into the city to monitor traffic flows.
The centre, with its bank of 50 television screens and range of up-to-date computer equipment, is now manned by representatives of the Garda, Dublin Bus and Control Plus - the corporation's parking contractor - as well as by corporation staff.
Bringing all four agencies together "under the one roof", as the Minister put it, is seen as an important change in traffic management which should facilitate a more rapid response to problems such as cars or vans illegally parked on bus lanes or clearways.
Mr Christy O'Sullivan, divisional engineer, said a Garda helicopter could "beam in pictures of a serious accident outside the area covered by the cameras". But he stressed they were only concerned with traffic.
Though the corporation frankly admits that it has no control over the inputs - in other words, the volumes of traffic entering the city - it believes that the traffic control centre has a vital role to play helping to clear bottlenecks and directing drivers away from congested areas.
This is being done through a new 24-hour radio station Travel FM 106.8 which is fully digital and updated regularly, and by a freephone service (1800 29 39 49) for traffic-related queries or news.
