Minister for State Patrick O’Donovan has said people must
accept the Phoenix Park was a commuter route as the gates of the park that had
been closed to motorists re-open today.
O’Donovan, the new junior minister in charge of the
Office of Public Works, said the park was a traffic route despite staff
responsible for the park describing it last month as the “green lung” of
Dublin.
It added that further measures to curb traffic flow were
being planned as recently as a fortnight ago, but those plans have now made way
for the full re-introduction of traffic.
During the Covid19 lock-down most of the gates in the
park were closed and more space was given over for cyclists and those out
walking.
The OPW said just two weeks ago it was shelving its
plans, for now, to open the gates again as the way the park was being enjoyed
had changed during the lock-down period.
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“Further measures to curb traffic volumes in the park are
likely to be introduced in the coming months as the park has seen a sea change
in how the public and visitors are enjoying the biodiversity, natural landscape
and wilderness of the park,” the OPW said in a statement just two weeks ago.
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However, O’Donovan met the OPW in recent days and now the gates of the park have been reopened.
And today he defended the decision to open all the gates
bar one in the park to traffic again, saying it was required for traffic.
“I would love to see the Phoenix Park maintained for park
use only, but I’m also very conscious of the fact that the western side of
Dublin has grown up around the park, and whether we like it or not for an awful
lot of people it is a commuter route,” he said.
“But we can’t just ignore the fact that the traffic
volumes are growing as the economy reopens and we also can’t ignore the fact
that by the end of August the schools are going to be reopened and we would
then be dragged into a decision, probably in haste, to open the gates without
knowing what impact it’s going to have in the longer term,” he said.
Green Party TD Nessa Hourigan expressed her shock at the
sudden reversal of plans for the park and the prioritisation of vehicles again.
“At the end of the working day yesterday it announced
that it planned to reopen the perimeter gates. No rationale has been supplied
for this complete about-face,” she said.
“Just a fortnight ago the OPW announced that it would
maintain the closure of the peripheral gates to the Phoenix Park in order to
facilitate the significant increase in use of the park by walkers and cyclists
of all ages in recent months.”
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