Mr. Gareth Llewellyn:

I thank the Deputy for his question. I am halfway through my briefing. The second half of it was due right now but has been postponed. There is lots that I still do not understand.

As I understand it, however, the inherent asset value of the road network that the TII looks after is €32 billion. We would be stupid not to maintain that value because letting it degrade and having to rebuild it would just load a significant amount of capital cost onto the Irish taxpayer at some point in the future. It is very important to me that we maintain what we have in good order. To do that, it is necessary to know a lot about the condition of the asset at all times. That is sometimes tricky, so understanding the condition of a tunnel, embankment or road requires investment, skills to interpret the data and good decision-making. None of those are generally what I would term sexy projects; they are basic things that have to be done. They are worthwhile doing because of the inherent value of the asset we have in Ireland. TII will continue to do that.

I do not know the split between maintenance and enhancement, which I think is the question the Deputy asked, because I have not yet been briefed on that, but no doubt it will become clearer when we publish our annual business plan. I think that is going before the board next month.

I will take up the Deputy's point on response times to delays and congestion on roads with management. The official part of the statutory duty of TII refers to that. It is about making sure those roads are operated efficiently and that people can use them efficiently. If people are experiencing delays for very long periods, they will probably feel anything other than that. If the obligation does not sit with TII, that will be part of the stakeholder engagement we will need to go on.