Mr. Michael Nolan:

Senator Feighan mentioned the issue of the national roads infrastructure north-west of Mullingar, which is basically the N4 from Mullingar to Longford and from Longford up to Cloonamahan. We actually have a scheme for the N4 mentioned in the capital investment plan. It for the 14 km or 15 km stretch on the N4 just south of Collooney. That is one of our high-priority schemes. That road has very poor safety aspects and there will be huge safety dividends to come from that scheme. There is a scheme to join Mullingar with the Drumod-Roosky bypass. That was a 50 km scheme for a dual carriageway-standard route from Mullingar up to the split of the N4 and N5 at Longford. We went through the process for that scheme with Westmeath County Council as the lead authority to select a preferred route corridor for that project. Unfortunately, due to the onset of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, that scheme was shelved. To give a sense of the scale of the scheme, it is 50 km long and would require an investment of about €400 million investment to open. The corridor is still protected by Westmeath County Council and Longford County Council, so the potential for it is still there.

Somebody mentioned the N5. I may as well deal with it now. Between Scramoge and Ballaghaderreen, there is 33 km of really poor national primary road on the N5. We are working closely with Roscommon County Council, the lead authority on that scheme, to develop a preliminary design and complete the statutory orders and the environmental impact statement. The business case for that scheme is about to be finalised and it will be sent to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform over the coming months for approval. Beyond that, we will await the outcome of the mid-term review. That scheme was not mentioned in the capital investment plan for 2016 to 2022.