Mr. Michael Nolan:

I will address the target of delivering on 150 minor scheme projects within the lifetime of the Government's Road Safety Strategy. Deputy Kelly mentioned a lack of funding in the seven-year plan. The seven-year plan started in 2016. The Road Safety Strategy started in 2013. We suffered a serious deficit in funding after the downturn. We did not deliver what we hoped to deliver in 2013, 2014 and 2015 because of lack of funding. That has continued. I will give the Deputy an update of where we stand with that. To date, 42 minor road schemes have been completed under the plan. Six were completed last year, nine minor schemes are currently under construction and a further three are to be awarded this month. Another four schemes will progress to construction this year, including the N59 at Kilmeena, the N67 from Ballinderreen to Kinvara near County Clare, the N80 Maidenhead realignment and the N81 Knockroe bend realignment. We have a further six schemes with planning approval which will be progressed to tender documentation preparation this year, with a view to progressing these schemes over the next year or so. In anticipation, there will be a further four schemes tendered in each of the years 2019 and 2020. The target is 150 schemes. We reported between 50 and 60 at the Committee of Public Accounts. The outlook is getting better than that, as I said in my opening statement. We would be grateful for additional funding coming for that. We will probably get to between 60 and 70 schemes, hopefully closer to 70 than 60. We will probably not get a glowing A+ or H1 now on that target, but we have a long list of schemes ready go through this process. Funding is the issue.