In what Conor Faughnan of the AA has described as a "desperate measure" the Department of Transport is considering allowing buses to use hard shoulders on motorways at peak times.
The Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, has asked his officials to examine the options available as regards possible use by buses - particularly Bus Éireann and private bus operators who run regular daily services to and from the regions - of the hard shoulders on motorways into Dublin.
"The priority in the assessment will be the issue of safety which cannot be compromised in any way by any decision that is reached on this," said a department spokesperson.
"This would be a fairly desperate measure," says the AA's Conor Faughnan. "The hard shoulder is there to provide access for emergency vehicles. If you were to allow them to be blocked, even for short periods, it would mean that ambulances, fire engines and police cars could not get through to where they were needed."
He likens the suggestion to a restaurateur blocking a fire exit at certain times. "While nobody likes spending millions of euro on road space that will seldom be used," he says, "the fact is that it's necessary for safety reasons. It would be like a restaurateur saying he needs the space taken up by the fire exit at peak times to accommodate extra diners. It's just not acceptable. If they were serious about reducing congestion they would make the Westlink bridge toll-free at peak times."
Britain is also considering a similar move with a pilot scheme allowing normal traffic use the hard shoulders on the M42 in the midlands due to begin next year.
The British transport secretary, Alistair Darling, has already said he would like the scheme to be extended to cover more roads including some around London. Mr Darling is keen on widening the M42 pilot scheme as part of efforts to cope with heavy traffic around London and in the North West of England.
In an interview with the Financial Times he said: "One of my exasperations is we plan something for two years, we trial it, then we think about it for another year. I want to do this in a wider way in the next couple of years or so."
Such hard shoulder schemes are already in use in the Netherlands, where traffic using the hard shoulder is monitored by CCTV cameras, designed to alert emergency vehicles of accidents and other emergency situations. Motoring organisations in Britain have expressed safety concerns about the proposed scheme.
Writing in the London Independent last week the RAC's managing director of consumer services, Findlay Caldwell, warned that "far too little research has been conducted on these measures and there has been virtually no meaningful consultation with safety bodies, emergency services or motorists. Results from studies in the Netherlands, that Mr Darling cites, are in fact contradictory and do not offer sufficient evidence that safety is not compromised."
The Irish hard shoulder proposal does not appear to find favour with the National Roads Authority (NRA) either.
"Hard shoulders are there primarily for safety reasons," says Brian Cullinane of the NRA. "They are there to provide access for emergency vehicles and so on. Using them for other purposes could compromise safety."
He points out that driving on the hard shoulder would have the effect of diverting drivers onto left-turning lanes which they don't necessarily wish to take. "This could cause serious problems. If we were to consider any proposals in this regard it would be from a safety point of view."
Resistance is also expected from a number of environmental campaigners, who believe it is motorway-widening by stealth.