Mr. John Fitzgerald:

I fully agree with the Deputy. The Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service have no issue with the Deputy's statement and we fully support the statement that everybody is entitled to a safe road and that people are entitled to proper transport corridors for business, farming, school children, shopping, community and recreational purposes, and tourism.

The Deputy has focused on our role, a role we have been given under statute. Under the planning and development legislation, our Department is a statutory consultee. Projects are sent to the Department for comment because we have a role in various areas, such as nature conservation and also in respect of archaeological and architectural issues under the planning legislation. That is why they are sent to us. We are fulfilling our duty. We try to provide information to the relevant decision makers, which we are not. Let me stress again, that we do not stop roads. We give our views and it is up to the competent authority, be it Galway County Council, TII or An Bord Pleanála to make those decisions. I do not think we could say: "Just build the road and then we will look at the nature conservation issues afterwards and try to rectify them." First, a habitat or a species may have already been badly affected but also trying to retrofit can be more costly and less efficient than trying to get it right with all elements in the first instance.