Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A couple of comments have been made on the national planning framework priority, access to the north west and balanced regional development. I will talk about roads and the recent announcement by TII that a number of projects have been pushed off funding for 2022, namely, the N4 from Mullingar to Roosky. This affects Longford, Westmeath, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo and south Donegal. Looking at a map of Ireland, and we can picture one in our heads, the north west is the one region that is not properly serviced with access to our capital city. That has to be a priority. The Industrial Development Authority was before the enterprise committee earlier today and its representatives spoke about the fact that accessibility to Dublin is needed for all regions. Our region has no such access.

We are weeks away from an identified preferred route after more than two years of consultation and the design office will now close down. That is not acceptable. Funding needs to be put in place to keep that process going until we identify the route instead of pushing it back until 2026 because what will then happen is the entire process will have to start again. Four years of work has now been done. We already wasted four years of work in 2006 and 2007. I ask the Minister to make a comment on this issue. On balanced regional development, we have to be fair to all those counties in the north west from Longford onwards.