Mr. Fred Barry:

We must allow until early 2015 for it to go to An Bord Pleanála, which typically takes one and a half to two years to deal with a major road scheme application, although that may speed up as it has worked through its backlog of applications. Public hearings will take place during that time and there will probably be continuing objections to the scheme. If An Bord Pleanála is generally well-disposed to the scheme and accepts the arguments made, it will send its views to the European Commission. I do not know how long the European Commission will take, but given how bureaucracies work it is unlikely it will take less than a year. I do not have a timeline. We are in new space. We have not been through this before where a local authority application has gone to An Bord Pleanála and then to the EU Commission for its opinion and it has come back. This will be a first, but it is unlikely to take fewer than several years.

I have no better opinion than anybody else in the room as to how many that will be. The position on the road from Gort to Tuam is better. The State funding is in place. Earlier this year we were given a commitment of funding to pay the State's bills on it through construction and development. A funding plan, involving private sector lenders together with the European Investment Bank, has been arranged and approved. The lenders are lined up and the negotiations are going on at the moment. Unless something comes along to derail progress, I expect that to be signed early in the new year and work on the ground to commence in the spring. In all of these things there is no certainty until the deal is signed, but it is looking very promising at the moment.