The priority is the delivery of a network that is safe and robust. In respect of the protection and renewal programme for existing roads, TII has safety as its priority, as do the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers. Inflation has eaten into the budget. The Government sanctioned and approved the construction of the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge road project. I ask the Deputy to look at the dramatic inflationary increase in the cost of that road from the original time it was mooted to where it is now. Nonetheless, we sanctioned it and it will go ahead.

The more fundamental point from a safety point of view is that, for the first nine months of 2023, approximately two thirds of fatalities on the road network have occurred on non-national roads, so we are very conscious of safety. Speed is still the big killer on our roads and we need to acknowledge that. This year, about €491 million of Exchequer capital funding was provided for national roads, for both protection and renewal, and new roads through Transport Infrastructure Ireland. Some €120 million was provided using public private partnerships and so forth.

I do not think we can blame the policy on hedges for this. Biodiversity is important. We need balance. It has been quite successful. What has happened in the past two years has been far more successful in respect of the protection of hedgerows, which we also need as a society for-----

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