Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am coming to that. The witnesses might recall that the money to fund the upgrade of the N73 at Kildorrery was put in a dormant account. I do not want to be parochial but no major shovel-ready project has been completed in the past five years. The flyover project at Bishopstown in Cork city was started but that was agreed more than six or seven years ago. I have not seen anything positive being done for the greater Cork area. It was mentioned today that some progress might be made on the M20 but we are still years behind on that. We have still not had good news on the Ballyvourney motorway project. We are just getting press releases about projects. A member asked how quick could work on the Jack Lynch Tunnel be brought on stream? That improvement would be good news for the greater Cork area. The current congestion there is a nightmare.

In terms of the M20, people travel from Cork to Limerick via Mitchelstown to avoid congestion at Buttevant, Mallow and Charleville. There was a rumour recently, which is false, that the route of the motorway from Limerick to Cork might be via Mitchelstown. I wrote to Mr. Nolan about that. The witnesses should knock harder on Deputy Ross's door. He does not seem to be focused on the issue of transport, and that is a concern. We read in the newspaper headlines that as every day passes he is more and more caught up with judicial appointments and so on. How quickly will the work on the Jack Lynch Tunnel be brought on stream?

I would say in support of Deputy Fitzpatrick's point that I know the witnesses have not written off the local improvement schemes rather they have left the ball in the court of the local authorities. A minority of people benefit from local improvement schemes. When one goes to a local authority meeting and voices one's support for a local improvement scheme planned for down the road, and there actually is a place called Ballymagash, the engineer will say that 40 people need to have a footpath alongside the road into Mitchelstown. That is the reason the local improvement scheme will not be given priority. The only local improvement scheme that was completed in north Cork was one that I kept pushing and it also benefited the upgrade of a local primary road.