No deal Brexit will lead to M1 traffic chaos
Speaking in reaction to the likely effect of a no deal Brexit on Dublin, the Labour Party’s Dáil by-election candidate for Dublin Fingal, Cllr Duncan Smith, spoke about the potential for gridlock on the M1.
Cllr Smith said:
“With less than four weeks to go until a potentially disastrous ‘no deal’ UK exit from the EU, there is a serious risk of gridlock on the M1. Dublin Port’s contingency plan to deal with traffic congestion in the port is to send incoming trucks back down the Port Tunnel and to instruct them to park somewhere off the M1. This would lead to chaos in terms of traffic and every service station would become a truck park.
“If delays to roll-on roll-off traffic in the port becomes frequent due to customs or other checks, this will have a major knock on effect for commuters using the M1 or other main roads into Dublin from Fingal. Dublin Port claim that government departments have taken up whatever available space they had for parking trucks, which has led to their tunnel plan.
“If there is a single breakdown in either direction, this whole plan will grind to a halt, and access to the city centre from the North-East of Dublin will be completely blocked. This plan is unacceptable and the government needs to tell the people of Fingal how it is going to keep traffic moving in the event of a hard Brexit at the end of this month.”