Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a chance of a relatively quick win because the project is not a circular route around the town but will cut across a short enough route. The TII might wrap up the project because there is huge local concern about it. Also, the commercial status of the centre of the town of Mountmellick is not good. If we got the HGVs out of the centre, we might get more people walking and cycling in Mountmellick and get more businesses going because there would be more footfall on the street itself.

Mr. Walsh mentioned that PPPs reduce risk for the public purse, which is good. He mentioned the two areas of construction risk and traffic risk. I will deal with that briefly. On the construction risk, let us say a 10 km or 20 km route must be built and has difficulties similar to what the TII had near Limerick, where the road had to go through a bog, or the tricky territory on the N7 and N8, a construction company would have a fair idea of the implications before submitting a price. Mr. Walsh mentioned weather as well. A lot of these roads were built before climate change became a major factor. I am not convinced of that argument.

Mr. Walsh also mentioned the issue of traffic risk. My understanding is that, for many of those roads, there is a built-in provision, what I think is called a varied operational payment. I have read the advance briefing notes from cover to cover to get to the bottom of this issue. There is a built-in mechanism where traffic volumes fall, for example, because of Covid in 2020. Am I correct in saying in respect of the N7-N8 Kildare-Laois bypass that there is provision for a variable payment clause if traffic volumes drop below a certain point?