Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My patch has even been covered by Deputies from other areas. I wish to inquire about offline and online services. Given the amount of planning permission that has been given in recent years, mainly for offline services, what impact has there been on neighbouring towns? Offline services provide access to people within the catchment areas in addition to those using the motorway. Originally service stations were principally supposed to be online. There is a concern that some of them are turning out to be as big as shopping centres and are affecting local villages and towns as they are pulling business out of the urban centres. Will planning permission continue to be given for offline service stations as opposed to online service stations in the context of motorways?

We all welcomed the Taoiseach's recent commitment to the construction of the M20. Could the witnesses give a gilt-edged guarantee that TII in its route study is just focusing on the construction of a motorway from Cork to Limerick via Mallow, Buttevant, Charleville and Croom and that in time a few road signs will be changed and we will hear the motorway is going to Limerick via other counties, for example, Cork and Mallow via Tipperary? The Taoiseach's commitment is great news but I would like an assurance from TII that we will not waste more time on looking at alternative routes which would affect the development of this very important western corridor that will help to progress the economic growth of the region into Clare, Galway, Mayo and Donegal in time to come. That said, money has been allocated for the development of a relief road in Mallow and I welcome the funding for it. If the relief road is to get priority, will it also be developed in such a way as to incorporate a motorway from Cork to Limerick?

Money was allocated recently for the N73, which is becoming a very busy road for economic, tourism and other reasons from Mitchelstown to Mallow and on from there. It incorporates the N72 which goes to Killarney. CPOs are in place for various stretches but how can we fast-track the development to upgrade the road for modern day traffic as there are stretches of it where heavy goods vehicles cannot pass each other safely?

I wish to raise the east Cork area. When I became involved in local government more than 20 years ago, the EU proposal was that there would be a trans-European network from Cork to Rosslare. Apart from the bypass in Youghal, all we have got in east Cork is the Jack Lynch tunnel. In recent days there was another fatality between Midleton and Castlemartyr. We know street paving works are going ahead in Castlemartyr but there are junctions on the road that will eventually give rise to further fatalities.

Funding for roads is an issue everybody raises. How do we progress road resurfacing and restrengthening?