The €751 million Dublin Port Tunnel was evacuated yesterday after a fire scare at the massive inner city development.

This is not the first time traffic has been prohibited from entering the tunnel for safety reasons.

However, yesterday traffic was stopped from passing through after smoke emitted from vehicles set off the tunnel's fire alarms.

Engineers repairing wall cracks in the tunnel were also removed as a precaution, along with all traffic.

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Safety experts soon established that faulty truck brakes had triggered the alarm, the third such incident involving truck fires since the tunnel opened.

Traffic was allowed to flow again shortly after the discovery.

Last month Dublin Bus was granted permission to use the tunnel, after a year-long campaign for public transport access.

Public bus commuters can now travel through the tunnel, after initial concerns by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey that the privately-owned Sword Express service would suffer.

After the Port Tunnel decision, Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said he was concerned about the implications for competition in the bus market, saying the move was "incompatible with fair economics".

(PR)