Mr. Daniel McSorley:

I will deal with some of the technical questions. There are others in our delegation who are much more qualified to deal with those of a political nature.

I will begin by addressing Deputy Smith's question with regard to money. It is important to reflect quickly on the financial position. Some £400 million was allocated in respect of the two sections of the A5 which were planned and on which work was expected to proceed when we previously discussed this matter with the committee. Of this, £350 million is being supplied by the Northern Executive and two tranches of £25 million will be provided, in 2015 and 2016, by the Government in Dublin. It is clear that none of this money will be able to be used in a practical sense. It is particularly important - this ties in with the question on timing - that we have those moneys reallocated in the next funding round. Indeed, it would be good to have an even greater amount allocated. The £350 million from Northern Ireland was disbursed in respect of other road projects. Theoretically, in the next comprehensive spending round - which begins in 2015 - that money will come back onto the table again. That is the theory in any event. The practical reality is that there will be a debate on the matter. We will discuss this matter with the Northern Ireland Minister for Regional Development, who has responsibility for transport, in the coming month to ensure he bids again for the money in question. It is important to ensure that the £50 million to be provided by the Government on this side of the Border is capable of being spent by the end of 2016. As a result, it needs to be reallocated. In terms of the next funding round, we must also obtain whatever other moneys we can for the budget from the Republic of Ireland. That is critical.

If the various studies and the environmental statement are completed and if the relevant Ministers make decisions, we expect that by the middle of June 2015 decisions will be taken in the context of moving forward with the orders. There is a potential for a public inquiry beyond that and such an inquiry could take place in late 2015. The outcome of the entire process is likely to emerge in 2016. We are not expecting any sod to be turned this side of the 2016-17 financial year. The four-year period commencing in 2016, therefore, will be important. We would advocate that the total allocation for the entire project should cover, if at all possible, those four years. In other words, the project should be phased over that period. The next funding round is, therefore, absolutely critical in terms of timing. We do not have detailed information, the Department has not completed its work and Ministers have not taken decisions. As a result, there are many unknowns. Obviously, there is no certainty and all we can do is provide our best guess with regard to what the timeframe for the project might look like.

Mr. Pat Doherty MP's question relates to the technical issues regarding the Ballygawley-Aughnacloy section of the road. The positive aspect is that the environmental statement will cover the area from Newbuildings to Aughnacloy. This means that the full section has been included. The outcome of the inspector's report on the previous occasion was that some questions arose in the context of the connections around Aughnacloy. There is more work to be done on that. The safe thing to do would be not to be too definitive about how the Aughnacloy aspect will be dealt with and to ensure that it does not block the remainder of the project. Environmentally, the expectation is that it will be dealt with on this occasion. People from Monaghan probably would be more familiar than I with the detail of what is involved but there is an engineering dimension with regard to how the bypass of Aughnacloy will be managed in the context of the new project. That is probably a sensible approach to the design by Roads Service Northern Ireland.