Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will give a specific example. I am based in Limerick city. The single biggest project on our side of the country on the western seaboard is the M20, which is the Cork to Limerick motorway. The mid-term capital review is taking place. Public consultations were accepted up to last Sunday, 30 April. I expect that many submissions have been made on the M20. The witnesses are probably aware that the project was discontinued back in November 2011 due to the state of the economy. We had a reactivation. The Minister, Deputy Ross, agreed to my request that work be done within Transport Infrastructure Ireland, formerly the National Roads Authority, to look at pre-preparatory planning on the M20. The project is estimated to cost between €800 million and €1 billion over a long number of years, including planning and building. If we get the go-ahead in September when the mid-term capital review is announced, the planning may take three to five years. It would take another three to five years to build the road.

I ask Mr. McDowell to give me the EIB's perspective on such a proposal, the type of criteria it would use and its perspective on elements such as State investment, public private partnerships and tolling of the road. I ask him to give me his sense of what percentage of funding the EIB would provide for such a proposal. It is hugely important for us as a region. At the moment, Dublin accounts for nearly 50% of economic activity in Ireland. We speak about balanced regional development. However, for it to truly happen, we need to connect the two largest cities outside of Dublin, Cork and Limerick, with a motorway. It is incredible that is has not happened before now. It needs to happen.

We are in a post-Brexit era and we must prepare for a hard Brexit. We must be competitive and one of those elements that would make us competitive, as an island, would be a proper motorway linking Cork, Limerick, Galway and along the coast to Waterford. Currently, a major piece of the jigsaw between Cork and Limerick is not linked by a motorway. Will the witness give his perspective, going as far as he feels inclined to go? It is very important for us in the Cork and Limerick region.