Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I am conscious of the difficulties that arise in this case. This is a very wide corridor of 300 m to 400 m, which if narrowed down to a more precise corridor would make life easier for many of the landowners in the area. I can understand their predicament. Unfortunately, there are about 20 other roads in a similar position and if I spend €3 million to narrow a corridor on each of these roads, this would cost €30 million or €40 million. I question if this money would be well spent in narrowing a big corridor down to a smaller corridor or whether that money would be better spent building a by-pass which would make life better for a whole town or whether it should be spent on road maintenance. We will struggle to afford the maintenance costs in the coming years. It is my judgment call whether to spend €20 million to €40 million in the next number of years to employ architects, planners and consultants to narrow corridors or to spend it on maintaining roads and building by-passes.

See this speech in context