'Super-agency' for city traffic studied Brennan wants to see greater consultation

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, is considering "new arrangements", including a transit authority, for the management of traffic in Dublin city centre.

Speaking this week, the Minister said a traffic or transit authority combining the functions of the Dublin Transportation Office, the traffic functions of Dublin City Council and the Department of Transport as funding agency, could be more effective than separate agencies.

The Minister, who was recently involved in a standoff with Dublin City Council, over the council's erection of a new generation of signs, wants to see greater consultation on the problem of traffic in the capital.

Specifically, the Minister told The Irish Times that as €40 million was provided by the taxpayer for traffic management measures, largely in the capital, taxpayers across the State had an interest in the solutions put forward.

The Minister, whose Dundrum base is one of Dublin's most congested suburbs due to the building of the Dundrum and Wyckham bypasses, feeder roads to the M50, the Luas line and the Taney bridge, said he was very familiar with the problem of traffic congestion.

He was, he said, supportive of the city council's efforts to deal with the traffic problem, including their identification of two new orbital routes, but current arrangements in the city were not satisfactory.

Taxpayers countrywide had an interest in the traffic arrangements in the city, and some sort of "new arrangement" between his Department, the DTO and Dublin City Council was required.

An integrated traffic agency was being discussed, he said, but was not yet confirmed.

Among possible solutions to the problem in the city centre were the encouragement of off-peak travel and road-pricing.

He stressed the urgency of developing the rail link between the city and the airport, saying: "We have got to take that out of the long-term strategy.

"The strategy is 10 years and more long, and we have to take out the things we can do now. I've asked the Rail Procurement Agency for proposals."

The Minister also maintained that the Government had little option but to use public-private partnerships for new infrastructure, even though he accepts that Government borrowing for toll roads may be cheaper in the long run.

"The EU won't let general government borrowing go beyond certain limits, so if we want the infrastructure we have to find a way of keeping the borrowing off the Government books," he said.

Some things were being looked at, such as simply renting new roads for a period of 30 years or so, but toll arrangements at least let the road revert back to the State after 20 or 30 years.

The Department is also looking at a "road bond" to be raised by the National Development Finance Agency and overseen by the National Treasury Management Agency.