Flexible Work and Commuter Delays: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Jennifer Whitmore (SD), Wicklow

I thank the Labour Party and Deputy Wall for bringing this motion forward. We are very happy to support it. A constituent of mine once told me that they did not live in Wicklow town; they merely slept there. That has stuck with me because it is reflective of the lived experience of so many people in a commuter county like Wicklow where people buy their homes, want to start families and be a part of the community but spend three or four hours a day trying to simply get in and out to work. Anyone who has travelled on the N11 or the M50 recently will know that we do not have any peak times on those roads any more. There is just a constant stream of traffic that people get stuck in. Indeed, if there is something like a crash, it just makes it impossible to get to work.
Not only does spending hours in that traffic create huge challenges for individuals in the context of their mental health and their ability to spend time with their families and on things they enjoy but it also creates a huge cost to communities. When those people are in their cars, they cannot be out talking in their local shop to shop owners and buying local. They are not going to be out volunteering in their local communities either. Every hour spent on the N11 in a car hollows out the communities from which these people come and where they should be living and enjoying their time.
This is not an isolated instance. This happens to constituents of mine all over the county. We all know that Wicklow has seen an incredible growth in population over the last number of years. What we have not seen, however, is infrastructure keeping pace with that growth. We are probably one of the few counties across Ireland that has a significant number of new houses being bought, but they are not affordable homes. That means that new people are coming into the area who have to keep on travelling in and out of Dublin to make the money to pay the mortgage.
With that lack of investment, when it comes to our public transport we have buses that do not show up, and when they do show up they cannot take anybody on because they are too full. We have train services that are so full going from Gorey to Dublin through Wicklow town that people faint on them because they have to stand for hours on end. We are not seeing the investment in public transport that the population growth in Wicklow should be matched with. There are huge pressures on families. I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward the motion. I ask the Minister of State to look at this from a holistic perspective. Wicklow needs sufficient public transport.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21