Transport in towns and cities is likely to come under severe pressure today as children return to most of the primary and secondary schools for the start of the new term.
Motorists are likely to face longer delays in getting to work than they have been used to over the school summer holidays as hundreds of school pupils and their parents rejoin the busy commuting routes.
There will still be some slight disruption to train services today despite the return to work on Monday of drivers from the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association, although an Iarnrod Eireann spokesman says only "a very small number of services" will be affected.
Fine Gael has criticised as "nonsensical" plans to ban cars from some city centres for one day later this month. September 22nd has been designated European Car Free Day in the participating cities and towns of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Portlaoise.
Cars will not be allowed into the town and city centres and commuters will be encouraged to take buses, bicycles or any other form of transport.
Fine Gael's national road traffic spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mit chell, described the event as unfair to motorists and called for it to be scrapped until there was a proper public transport system in place.
She criticised the reported plan by Dublin Bus to put on extra buses in the city during the car ban period of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. "There is already a huge under-supply of bus services during the peak commuter demand periods. If Dublin Bus have buses to spare, let them press them into service to meet the peaks and not the valleys," she said.
Dublin Bus has said it is proposing to provide free travel on all of its services on September 22nd from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., while normal fares will apply outside those hours. Iarnrod Eireann is proposing to provide free DART services on the day during the same off-peak period.
Both organisations say they are negotiating a funding package with the Departments of Environment and Public Enterprise, Dublin Corporation and the Irish Energy Centre as part of the European Car Free Day initiative, although a spokesman for Dublin Bus said yesterday that the negotiations were "virtually concluded at this stage".