Mr. Michael Nolan:

As my colleague, Mr. Walsh, mentioned earlier, we have granted some small amount of funding to local authorities to do a pre-appraisal on a number of schemes this year. We are doing a fitness test on those schemes to see how they rate against the Department's strategic investment framework priorities. We ask if they complete missing links on the network, address safety-critical issues and provide access to poorly-served regions, which would be in agreement with what the Deputy is saying. We also ask if they address integration and peripherality, issues of capacity, access to large-scale employment, and improving connections to key seaports and airports - the Deputy mentioned the N24.