Traffic Delay Prevents Labour TD from Proposing Congestion Motion

A Labour Party TD who was due to propose a motion on reducing congestion could not do so, because of a traffic delay on the M50 this morning. The Labour Party wants action on flexible working hours, which it says can reduce commuter delays. Ciarán Ahern told the Dáil that his colleague, Kildare South TD Mark Wall, was due to bring the motion this morning, but "rather ironically, or perhaps appropriately, he’s stuck in traffic right now, coming in from Athy, and he’s been there for three-and-a-half hours". Mr Ahern said the M50 was "an absolute nightmare" for commuters describing it as bumper-to-bumper in the evening, day in and day out. He said this had knock-on effects on other routes leading to the capital. Watch: TD could not propose congestion motion as he was stuck on M50, Dáil told The Dublin South-West TD said: "TII, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, says without a change in Government policy, all of the available options have been exhausted. "Dublin is now the third-most congested city in Europe, and the 11th-most congested city in the world." He said that "the absence of a real, meaningful right to flexible and remote work is contributing significantly to congestion" and that it was a shame to see the rollback of this one true positive of the Covid pandemic. He said it was "fundamentally a workers’ rights issue and a quality-of-life issue", adding: "People are spending hours stuck every week in traffic...almost anything would be a better use of time." He suggested that it would be very easy for employers to offer modest flexibility, such as offering slightly different start times for some workers. He said: "This is something the government could address almost overnight. "There is a clear lack of urgency from Government in delivering projects that would do most to alleviate congestion in Dublin, and beyond." He also criticised recent changes to bus routes under the BusConnects programme, citing delays and cancelled buses in his constituency of Dublin South West.