Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Walsh. He could not be any clearer than that, which I appreciate. That gives us great hope.

I refer again to the N73 and other such projects. Has TII given consideration to the budget line for major schemes in relation to County Cork? For instance, the Ballyvourney to Macroom project is coming in this year at approximately €60 million, or €61 million if one wants to round it up.

The perception held by people like me is that the effect of all of the moneys going into the Dunkettles and Macroom bypasses of this world, which are the subject of national priority, is to suck the marrow out of the bone for other smaller projects. I acknowledge that they are smaller roads and lesser priorities, but this means that people like me are fighting on our backs for projects that are in abeyance for five, ten, 15 or 20 years. Is it not incongruous that, if a road is a national priority under a national development plan and so on and it is politically prioritised at Government level, it should have a negative bearing on a local authority's ability, in partnership with TII, to deliver on national secondary routes, tertiary routes and so forth? Does Mr. Walsh believe that there should be a rebalancing of priorities so that Exchequer funding for national secondary routes, which are usually the main routes serving counties, do not get caught up in a Samson versus Goliath struggle where, for example, the N73 is completing with the Macroom bypass?