A radical measure to ameliorate Dublin's traffic problems was proposed by Mr Feargal Quinn (Ind) who suggested that motorists should have to pay for access to city streets. Tough medicine was needed to cure the capital's traffic ills, he said.
There should be a two-pronged approach: the provision of public transport that offered a radically better way of getting from A to B for a motoring public that loved their cars; and it should be made significantly more expensive for motorists to use their vehicles, by making them pay for the use of city streets on a pay-as-you-go basis.
This kind of road pricing would overnight cut the amount of traffic to the level that was essential to get public transport to the point where it was an attractive alternative, he said.
"The technology now exists to charge people for using particular streets or parts of a city. It's a reality already in Singapore and Hong Kong, and it's working."
However, people in Ireland still felt strongly that they had a God-given right to drive where they liked, when they liked, and at no extra cost. Our whole traffic strategy was based on that assumption, and we saw the dreadful consequences all around us, he added.
Mr Quinn, who was contributing to a debate on the need for a new initiative on traffic, said that charging motorists for the use of roads would be a quantum leap.
"But I suggest that the time has now come to consider it. This is what we should be debating, when we talk about traffic. We should be talking road pricing, not the Band-Aid solutions of light rail lines and quality bus corridors."
The Minister for Public Enterprise said that implementation of a new rail investment programme would increase Dublin's suburban rail capacity by 60 per cent.
Ms O'Rourke said she hoped to be in a position to announce funding for an extra 100 buses for Dublin Bus shortly.
The morning peak hour rail capacity in the Dublin area would be increased by 11,300 trips. All but one of the rail measures proposed by the recent Dublin Transportation Office Action Plan had been included in the reallocation of the Luas EU funding. The total investment involved was £63 million and would be put in place by the end of 2000.
"In simple terms, we will witness a 60 per cent increase in total rail trips capacity or a 17 per cent increase in total public transport trips in the morning peak. And this is being brought about because of a major departure from existing practice as this investment will be part-financed by the Exchequer."