War of words over Cork city’s traffic management measures

A Labour councillor has criticised a Fianna Fáil MEP for a letter she wrote to Cork City Council regarding traffic in the city centre.

In the letter, Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú raised the issue of traffic chaos in the city and asked for consideration to be given to the commissioning of a report to identify possible measures to alleviate traffic gridlock.

Ms Ní Mhurchú suggested the implementation of increased traffic policing and enforcement, speedier removal of cars after minor accidents, and the introduction of new smart junction technologies.

Peter Horgan, chairman of the Cork City Council transport strategic policy committee, said Ms Ní Mhurchú “should contact her party’s ministers for transport and justice before seeking a traffic management plan that is not in the gift of Cork City Council, and certainly not without the crash data needed to make such decisions”.

He stressed that additional Garda deployment to Cork is key to addressing traffic issues, but that crash data needs to be released through the ministers for justice and transport.

“It’s very simple; we cannot do any traffic intervention without the data on the multiple daily crashes,” said Mr Horgan.

“Every day, multiple times a day, there is crash after crash, causing backlogs not just on the main artery surrounding the city but impacting into communities like Blackrock, Douglas, and causing significant danger in enhanced traffic flows.

“So much of this is driver behaviour, but we now need to put the deterrence to force that behaviour change, backed up by empirical evidence of same.

“We need our MEPs leveraging their ministerial colleagues, especially when those ministers are party colleagues.”

Mr Horgan recently sent a letter to ministers, calling for significant additional gardaí, additional signage highlighting the need to slow down, and the examination and publication of data on where crashes are taking place, among other measures.

Ms Ní Mhurchú told The Echo: “I want to reassure Councillor Horgan that I am continually liaising with my ministerial colleagues on this issue.

“I agree we need concrete data on the multiple daily crashes, but that is only part of the solution. We need leadership from Cork City Council on Cork’s chronic traffic issues.

“I would urge the councillor, whom I believe is sincere on the matter, to get behind the efforts to deal with Cork’s traffic issues rather than passing the buck.”