Large lorries which are too big to travel through Dublin's Port Tunnel will not be be allowed through the city centre either, it emerged yesterday.
More than 360 heavy goods vehicles a day will be affected by the restriction, which will effectively mean they have no exit route from Dublin Port.
The Dublin Port Users' Group described the proposal as "the impossible situation".
The planned city centre restriction on lorries was revealed by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, at the launch of a manual on traffic management guidelines.
He said all lorries importing goods to the Republic through Dublin Port "will be required to use the Port Tunnel when the tunnel opens in 2005".
Mr Brennan said the requirement for lorries to use the port tunnel was in line with State policy.
Describing the €700 million tunnel as probably the largest current construction project in the EU, the Minister said its primary purpose was "to give Dublin back to the pedestrian, train and bus".
Asked afterwards if the Minister's position reflected an intention to introduce an outright ban on lorries using the city centre once an alternative route was in place, a spokesman said he understood such a proposal formed the basis of Dublin City Council's reason for having the tunnel.
The spokesman added that the larger trucks had problems beyond the port and port tunnel in that many of the State's road and railway bridges were well below the port tunnel clearance of 4.65 metres, and could not in any case facilitate larger lorries.
"In other countries they have local deliveries by smaller trucks; some of these large trucks are terrifying and the Minister is not making any apologies. He doesn't think Ireland wants these supertrucks."
Dublin City Council's port tunnel project manager, deputy city engineer Mr Tim Brick, confirmed "there shouldn't be any doubt that there will be controls and restrictions on where and when you can use a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) in the city" once the port tunnel is open.
Mr Brick told The Irish Times that "it could never be envisaged . . . that we would allow 9,000 trucks to trundle through the centre of a medieval-style European city" once the port tunnel was opened.
He cautioned that a lot of negotiation - "probably tortuous" - with interested bodies remained, but said: "The Minister has focused on the primary aim, the primary objective, which has been to get these trucks out of the city centre."
The proposal was, however, greeted with dismay by the Dublin Port Transport Users' Group.
Its spokesman, Mr Jerry Kiersey, said at least 360 and maybe as many as 720 trucks a day would be height-barred from using the tunnel, leaving them "not able to go anywhere". Mr Brennan also announced proposals to double the number of Quality Bus Corridors (QBCs) in Dublin from nine to 18 "within about a year", and to introduce QBCs to Cork and Galway.
