A pre Christmas traffic management strategy for Dublin will be announced next week, the House was told. The Minister of State for Health, Mr Brian O'Shea (for the Minister for Transport) said some measures had been put in place already extra hours for bus lanes, reduced use of parking meters and the extension of the Dublin Corporation traffic control centre.

He was responding, in an adjournment, debate, to Ms Helen Keogh (PD, Dun Laoghaire) who said that journey times through the city which were taking 20 minutes last year were now taking an hour. The Government should have foreseen the inevitable consequence of its car scrappage scheme and should have taken effective measures to counter the increased traffic.

"I won't even ask to what extent LUAS will add to the gridlock. The answer is perfectly clear," she added.