Dr. Brian Hughes:

One major thing we must do is try to separate regional and local traffic. If, for example, we get our act together and decide to build the eastern bypass, we would get an enormous return from that straight away. I know it means looking at Sandymount Strand again and so on but that is just one example. There are many other examples as well. The Chairman talks specifically about overheating. It is clearly important that, as all of our cities develop, the infrastructure needed for them to operate more smoothly is developed in turn. Look at the improvement to Limerick when the tunnel was put in west of the city. There are other such examples as well. It is fantastic now to be able to get as quickly as possible to the Blarney viaduct in the southern part of Cork city. One goes down under Dunkettle roundabout through the tunnel, and before one knows it, if going to Baltimore or wherever else, one is at the Blarney viaduct.

To help all of this, we have to think in terms of accessibility and putting as much as we can into an ordered priority of infrastructure to try to help this. The Chairman is absolutely right about County Meath and the number of people who work elsewhere. Clearly, critical mass is hugely important. As the critical mass of Drogheda, for example, increases, more service-type employment is going to come into the town because it is so close to Dublin Airport, Dublin Port and so on, as well as the port in Drogheda itself. Even small elements of infrastructure have to be considered. For example, Mr. Peter Monahan and others have had difficulty in trying to get a cycleway from Mornington over to the Battle of the Boyne site, and it is only a small project. There is clearly a need for this new spirit of openness and planning for the best Ireland. We need to be all positive instead of resisting things. We need to be as positive as possible about opportunities to allow us to capture this as soon as possible, to put in the motorway, the cycleway or whatever is needed.