Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Mullaney for his replies.

In conclusion, I was a councillor before I became a Deputy and the Chairman is a former councillor. Over the years we attended similar briefings, as Oireachtas representatives and councillors, and I never ever heard the Limerick northern distributor road be treated as just being a discrete infrastructure project from Coonagh to Knockalisheen. It was always a bandit corridor that brought one north to the city through south-east Clare and was to be done in phases. I do not what parlance that the Minister has introduced but certainly in the region and locality the project was always to be done in phases. It may not have been to everyone's taste or liking but there were processes to deal with route design and all the other issues that people had and now it appears that the project has been guillotined by the Minister, which is wrong. I do not know whether he will be in public life in 2040 but the people around the area will need certainty regarding infrastructure and by his action this scheme has been pulled from them overnight.