2026-03-19

I rise in the Chamber tonight to once again try to get to some solutions to the car park the N7-M7 has become. People are spending their lives in cars. They drive for three hours every morning to work and drive back home for three hours every evening. Some people leave their home at 6.30 a.m. Some leave their home at 5.30 a.m. to try to beat the traffic. They spend an hour or an hour and a half in their work car parks to avail of some time and to try to avoid what is happening on the roads. I am asking the Minister of State tonight to look at park and ride. We were told the NTA park and ride development had established an office, arising from a recommendation relating to the climate action plan, with a view to advancing strategic park-and-ride facilities to take people out of their private cars and give them a public transport option such as a bus service into the capital. In a recent reply I received, I was told by the NTA that two specific sites have been identified on the M7-M9 corridor – one at Kill, which was to provide 500 parking spaces and one in Naas-Sallins, which was to provide 1,000 parking spaces. The reply goes on to say that the work at Kill was well advanced and was progressing very well until some problems arose with the land developer. That work now seems to have stalled. The reply states the NTA is now working on the Sallins option for 1,000 car parking spaces in and around Sallins train station. In the reply I received, the NTA also stated that it needs to put in enhanced railway infrastructure closer to Dublin city centre to maximise the potential of such a facility but it will go ahead with some design at the Sallins location. These replies are totally and utterly disheartening because not alone do we need park-and-ride facilities at Sallins and Kill but we also need them at other locations along the M9 in particular. As I came to Dáil Éireann this morning I passed 11 cars parked at the Ballitore interchange, which is a daily occurrence. Normally, we would get up to 20 cars at that location. These are people who are car pooling and going to Dublin who park on the side of the road. It is a similar situation at the Castledermot interchange on the M9 where 20 cars could also be parked. Kildare County Council promised over a long period while I was on it that we would see park-and-ride facilities at these locations but there is no mention in the replies of any facilities at those locations. We have people spending three hours in their cars each morning. One cannot contemplate the mental torture that is putting on people coming in every day. They are not getting home in time to see their families and they are stuck in traffic every day. The Government seems to be very slow coming up with solutions. The solutions I have been told about in relation to Sallins are now only beginning to progress to a design stage, which means that we are probably years away from having park-and-ride facilities. There is no mention of the Ballitore or Castledermot interchanges. What we need to hear tonight from the Government is that there is progress. We need the Government to deal realistically with the problem. There may have been a meeting in the Department of Transport in recent days and I hope as a result of it that we will get some solutions for all those who are trapped in their cars on the M7 and the M9.

I am happy to take this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Transport. I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to address the issue in the House this evening. Improving public transport services and infrastructure is central to improving citizens' quality of life and addressing our climate action challenge. The Government is committed to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland. There is a substantial number of people in regional towns, the rural hinterland and in the metropolitan area who do not have ease of access to high-quality public transport by walking or cycling. Appropriately located and designed park-and-ride facilities can enable them to access public transport and enhance their options to reach a wide range of destinations in a sustainable manner. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has responsibility for planning and developing park-and-ride sites. It is leading the development and roll-out of strategic park-and-ride sites nationwide through the park and ride development office, which was established in 2020. Within this policy framework, the transport strategy for the greater Dublin area for 2022 to 2042 has identified various zones of intervention along corridors on the approach to Dublin city. They include two park-and-ride sites along the M7, namely, a rail-based park-and-ride facility in Sallins, which will provide 1,000 extra parking spaces, and a bus-based park-and-ride facility in Kill, with an extra 500 spaces. Significant work has already been undertaken to advance proposals for the 500-space bus-based strategic park-and-ride site at Kill. However, the project remains at preliminary design stage owing to the landowner having withdrawn from negotiations in respect of the NTA's preferred site. Work on the Kill project will continue during 2026 as resources and funding permit. The proposed Sallins facility is listed as a priority project within the NTA's greater Dublin area transport strategy, which also includes the planned extension, in the longer term, of high-capacity, high-frequency electrified DART services to Sallins and Naas. The park-and-ride site will integrate with the DART+ programme and services when both projects are completed. larnród Éireann is also working to deliver increased parking at rail stations nationwide. This includes recently completed works at Kildare and ongoing preliminary design work for Athy and Carlow. Works at Newbridge and Hazelhatch have been identified as medium-term objectives. In addition, larnród Éireann is currently in the process of updating its national car park strategy, which may identify further station locations along the M7 and M9 catchment area.

I really appreciate the Minister of State taking time to come to the House this evening. I acknowledge that this issue does not come under the remit of her Department. The work done at Kildare town train station is very welcome but the new car park is already full. Drivers cannot get into it every morning. People have told me they cannot use Kildare town train station because the car park was not designed to accommodate the traffic going into it. This is what the Government and the NTA have put forward as a fundamental change in commuting. We all support public transport. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I have been calling for more public transport for Kildare South for a long time, including hourly commuter services to Athy and further on to Carlow. In a reply I received recently, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, stated the problems at the M7-M9 junction were related to congestion on the roads and that the number of accidents there was directly correlated to that congestion. TII is telling us the problem is congestion and the NTA is saying it has medium- to long-term solutions. Unfortunately for the people of Kildare South, they are left with no option but to hop into the car every morning and spend up to six hours trying to get to work in Dublin. We need a Government policy on remote working that would allow those people, including up to 5,000 civil servants working in Dublin, to work more often from home. Increasingly, however, they are being called back to the office. If we are not getting park-and-ride facilities in the short term, which the Minister of State's reply tells us is the case, I ask that she encourage the Minister for Transport to promote the idea of remote working for the civil servants in his Department who are having to come into the office for extra days. The Government must take a leading approach on that. There are other solutions as well, as proposed previously by the Labour Party. Unfortunately, the Government voted down those proposals in a recent motion I brought to the House.

As I noted in my reply, the NTA is progressing park-and-ride sites at Sallins and Kill, which together will provide more than 1,500 additional car parking spaces, as part of its co-ordinated programme of park-and-ride development at strategic locations. In addition to this work, collaborative work is ongoing with Iarnród Éireann to deliver increased parking at existing rail stations nationally. That includes the recently completed works at Kildare. I acknowledge what the Deputy said about that car park not being sufficient to accommodate the number of cars currently seeking to use it. The work also includes ongoing preliminary design work for Athy and Carlow, with works at Newbridge and Hazel being identified as mid-term objectives. If there are lessons to be learned from what happened in Kildare, I hope those lessons will, indeed, be learned. Iarnród Éireann is also updating its national car park strategy, which may identify further locations along the M7 and M9 catchment area. Collectively, these projects will support reduced car dependency, lower congestion and improve public transport accessibility for commuters travelling into the greater Dublin area. As far as other projects are concerned, the NTA is currently working with TII on the feasibility of bus priority measures for the N7 corridor, which most likely will be in the form of hard-shoulder bus running. Enhanced bus priority would make bus-based trips along the corridor more desirable and would also support the delivery of bus-based park-and-ride schemes. Iarnród Éireann is also looking at delivering increased parking at existing rail stations nationally. I have already mentioned those stations and will not go through them again. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue.

I thank the Minister of State.