An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

RTÉ recently highlighted that new housing developments are being built with limited car parking spaces and no additional transportation routes. What is happening is that the new residents are parking on existing housing estates close by, which leads to a lot of tension among residents.
An example is the Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, where 3,500 new homes are going in, but a limited number of car parking spaces are being allocated. Residents at the Glass Bottle site will be moving into their new homes very soon, which is long overdue but also welcome. The difficulty is that almost no parking spaces have been allocated to the new homes. This will have a huge impact on the wider community. The previous Government limited the number of spaces that could be put in the new development. That Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government also postponed the new Luas connection to the area for at least ten years, so not only will there be no parking, there will be no Luas and less public transport.
You would think the Government would have learned from past mistakes but seemingly not. For new residents, this means they are going to find parking in the areas closest. What is known as the new houses off Sean Moore Road are going to be inundated with cars parking there and it is going to lead to tensions. Whether planners want that or not, that is what is going to happen. Bremen Road, Kerlogue Road, Cymric Road and many other roads like them are going to be inundated with traffic. This is unfair on the residents in the older housing units and homes there who will have to pay the price for poor planning once again. Residents are going to have to pick up the tab for failure in proper planning and delivery of infrastructure.
No doubt we will hear local Fine Gael councillors and Senators complaining about this even though their party introduced the limits on parking spaces and kicked out the plans for the Luas down to Poolbeg. Residents were recently saying to me that they saw there was to be a public meeting by a Government TD calling for the Luas delivery to be fast-tracked in the area even though it was his party that cancelled the delivery of the Luas into the area. Residents see it as cynical. They want solutions, not just the constant withdrawal of transportation services.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14