Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I did not come to this meeting to bash or to thrash anybody. I am absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to put questions to these gentlemen on infrastructure projects.

First, members have attended presentations in Buswells Hotel by organisations such as IBEC. In the view of IBEC, Ireland has the lowest level of infrastructure per capitathan in any other country in Europe. I want to ascertain the reason for that. Is it that the TII does not have the projects shovel ready? Is it that the Government will not fund it even though we are being told that money was never cheaper to borrow than at present? It is not as if the work is not there to be done, because my county is completely destroyed for the want of proper infrastructure. We cannot attract jobs, investment of any kind, creed or description. Where did Kerry Co-op, our own jewel in the crown, finish up? A few miles out the road on the side of the motorway in County Kildare, because we did not have the proper infrastructure to keep that technology project in Kerry. The infrastructure is not there.

Is the Government not making an attempt to provide the funding to source it? We have been waiting for more than 30 years for the Macroom bypass and the precursor of TII, the NRA, gave a fine presentation with maps in the Malton Hotel, Killarney, in 2004 about the Killarney bypass. That was 13 years ago and it was about to start at that time but there is no account of what happened to those plans. Were the plans binned?

I was interested to hear Deputy Broughan speak about the N72, and he mentioned as far as Rathmore, but between Rathmore and Killarney there is a bridge that is a couple of hundred years old; it is like a nest going around it and the railway goes under it. What is the plan for that bridge? There are bends at Gortahaneboy about which we have been asking at county council meetings for years. Our renowned footballer and now dancer, Aidan O'Mahony is very local to Gortahaneboy and the stretch of bends where people have been killed. When will funding for road works be provided? Does TII have its part of the programme ready? Is it a matter of getting funding from the Government? Let me mention three bridges, Listry Bridge, Caragh Bridge and Curraheen Bridge on the Ring of Kerry, which were built approximately 250 years ago and on which traffic is reduced to one-lane traffic. They were built in the days of the horse and cart and two horses and carts could pass but now two motor cars cannot pass. The bridges were narrowed to ensure that it is one-way traffic, with traffic in the other direction having to stop.

The TII witnesses referred to Dublin which has the Luas, the DART and the railway tracks to the North, but in fairness the people in rural Kerry need a fair crack as well. We have not been getting it and the way things are going, I do not know if we ever will. I ask the Chairman not to blame me for highlighting the needs of County Kerry, which were brought to our attention by IBEC.

Has the TII a sufficient number of shovel-ready projects because the west is lacking proper roads and motorways? The people have come up to Dublin but they cannot buy a house because they would not be able to pay for it. One hears reports every morning of a person or two who has been murdered. There is no law or order here because the authorities cannot manage the number of people in the city.