A new traffic plan to stop cars travelling through Dublin city 'has the prospect to be good', Paschal Donohoe has said.
The Dublin City Centre Transport Plan is aiming to stop motorists driving 'through' instead of 'to' the capital.
It would cover the core inner-city from St Stephen's Green to Mountjoy Square, and from Smithfield to the Custom House.
It is set to come into place by August.
Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe told Newstalk Breakfast the plan should considered alongside larger transport projects.
"I think overall it does have the prospect to be good," he said.
"Dublin City Council have engaged in consultation with communities and stakeholders on this.
"I think they're going to be considering the plan later on in February.
"But in the second half of the 2020s we're going to have a really large number of public transport projects for the city of Dublin that have the ability to really reshape what the city will look like.
"I think if we are doing that, we then need to use this as an opportunity to look at the impact of private traffic on our city.
"How we can make it cleaner, how we can make it more beautiful and how we can continue to make it the fine city that I believe it is today," he added.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has said the plan could be expanded to other cities such as Waterford, Cork or Galway.
It is one of 35 pathfinder projects being looked at to speed up transformation of the transport system.
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