Mr. Fred Barry:

It is, but until propositions are put to the funding or credit committees of the banks, one does not know whether or on what terms they will offer. We are with a preferred bidder and with the support of the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA, we are very actively pursuing this. We share the sense of urgency about getting it done, although it is taking time, and we share the view of its importance and necessity.

On the Newlands Cross flyover, every time we do work, people benefit and people are discommoded. I would never understate the impact on people who are discommoded, whether landowners, neighbours or others. I am very sympathetic to anybody who is suffering. For most people who are badly impacted by a new road there will be compensation measures through some combination of land acquisition or accommodation works. There are others who do not have land taken but are in the neighbourhood and may suffer from it. There are no statutory provisions that allow us to make payments to those people.

This is a planning issue that is much wider than just the NRA but it is rather the same as the planning blight situation which we have talked about previously in this forum, where local authorities might have corridors reserved for a long time, thereby affecting people negatively, and where there is no provision to make payments to those people.

We can only work within the statutory provisions, and the provisions are as they are. That said, when we are doing a fairly large job, we normally make a contribution to the local authorities towards the end of the job, or sometimes in part during the job, to compensate for damage to the local road network and other related issues. If the local authority elected to use some of that money to put mitigation measures in place in the neighbourhood, we would not question it too closely as to how it elected to use the money. That might be an avenue for the residents to gain some relief.

On the question of whether we have conversations with the Department and the Minister's office on funding, the answer is yes, we do.