Mr. Michael Nolan:

That is an important point. With regard to the funding, our funding profile for the next number of years has remained unchanged. There has been speculation that it is the reason the decision making is slowing down but that is not the case. The funding the Department voted for us last October remains in place and we are still getting the funding in accordance with the national development plan. We have a ten-year funding profile that remains unaltered as we speak. We went with Dunkettle as a high hot spot with regard to inefficiency and safety. We identified that after the recession. When we were finishing the major inter-urban roads Dunkettle was obviously on our radar because of the number of incidents and the cost to the local economy. It remains very high on our agenda.

I said from the outset that it is the most complex junction we have on our programme. There are huge delays there not just for cars, freight and business but also for public transport. Public transport cannot get through it. Buses are held back like everything else. We will help to unlock all that. I can give an assurance that we remain very much focused on that. We will do everything in the next 18 months, whether that is through a stage 2 contract to get it up and running with the contractor, if we proceed to stage 2 and, if not, we will go back to the market and do everything we can to procure as fast as possible. However, we will also do other works during that 18 months and use that time in a valuable way. I give an assurance that there is no change in the funding profile. People can be reassured about that.