Sir, – I would love to think that the Taoiseach spent his wasted 75 minutes in gridlock wondering how we got to this pretty point in the development of Dublin ("Gridlocked Taoiseach takes 75 minutes to get to work", News, January 30th).
If he did, maybe he would finally realise that unbalanced regional development over generations has something to do with this. The recent economic recession just about kept the lid on this overcooked region, and now that the heat has been turned up, it’s starting to boil over. He should keep a copy of the latest ESRI report in his glovebox to pass the time. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’CONNELL,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
A chara, – Traffic gridlock is a nationwide crisis. Mr Varadkar should attempt to drive through any of our cities or major towns during the working week. Every Tuesday evening I have to travel by car with three young children less than three kilometres from Clonskeagh to Dublin 6, which should take only five minutes, but heavy traffic on this short trip is making us endure a 30- minute journey.
We have always had awful traffic problems but our Taoiseach seems to have only encountered this decades-old phenomenon of traffic gridlock last Tuesday. Mr Varadkar is blaming our expanding economy, which is definitely one factor, so we should be bracing ourselves for even worse commutes as our economy becomes even boomier this year!
Drastic actions and radical transport solutions are desperately and urgently needed as nationwide traffic gridlock is impacting on the health and quality of everyone’s life. – Is mise,
JASON POWER,
Dartry,
Dublin 6.