Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We will ask the officials to respond regarding the future fuelling of public transport and to outline the thinking in the Department in this regard. I thank the Deputy for his views that matter.

I am conscious of time and want to give every member an opportunity to ask questions. Senator Dolan will forgive me for making some comments before I call him. Most of what I had to say has been covered so I will be very brief. We have spoken a lot about connectivity for regions and rural areas, be it in the context of broadband, road or rail. It is essential that, whatever policies we devise, we improve regional connectivity in the first instance. If our regional connectivity is good, local access will be better.

I note the comments on Project Ireland 2040 and the national development plan. One of the regional cities identified for substantial urban growth is Waterford. Of all the access routes to Waterford from other cities, the only good one is that from Dublin. The N25 to Cork is dilapidated. There are road works in Castlemartyr that have been going on for ever. I remember travelling to Munster finals in the early 1980s and there were road works there. I am now almost 50 and there are still road works going on. Why is the N25, a primary national road, in what seems to be a very poor state?

The N24 connects two cities, Limerick and Waterford, whose populations are estimated to almost double by 2040. The N24 is one of the worst national routes in the country in terms of its surface, the number of bends, the number of accidents on it and the number of villages through which it runs. It is a terrible road connecting two of the cities for which we have such high ambitions. How are we going to connect the cities with proper national primary routes and, by extension, improve access to those networks in the regions?

It is 2018 and the N24 and N25 are in a deplorable state. I would like to hear the views of the officials from the Department on how we are going to improve that in accordance with the ambition already outlined in Project Ireland 2040 and the national development plan. It is essential that we do so. I apologise to Senator Dolan.