James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a request for the Minister in that area because I believe it is quite an interesting issue. The work the Attorney General is doing is obviously a very important part of Government business at the moment. It is critically important that all relevant civil servants in the Minister's Department, including the Minister, would feed into that process. It is crucial that all feedback is given, including the local authorities, which are often able to get away with being responsible for many of the delays with regard to public transport projects. An issue that has arisen from conversations I have had with key State agencies is around improving the planning process. We have such an opportunity as a Government to grab the bull by the horns in terms of trying to solve that. We need to get everybody in at the right time, however, and that should be done over the course of the next 12 months. It is very important.

I wish to raise another issue with the Minister in the limited amount of time I have. When is the allocation for national roads funding going to be released by the Department?