Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. When I leave this meeting tonight, I will travel along the M4 to Longford. I will pay a €3 toll, which is probably among the more expensive tolls. I do not think I am getting value for money, especially because I am going to Longford. It is the same for anyone who is travelling to the north west, including Mayo, north Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath or south Donegal.

We do not have a dual carriageway or motorway access the entire way west, yet that is not the case to almost anywhere else as you leave Dublin city. Mr. Walsh spoke in particular about Sligo, Collooney, Castlebaldwin, the significant number of fatalities that occurred there and why that road was funded. On the N4 section between Mullingar and Roosky, there have been 20 fatalities, 34 serious injuries and a further 218 accidents since 2008, and there was one this morning that delayed me coming in to Leinster House. The Government has prioritised balanced regional development as core to the economics of this country, with every region having the opportunity to benefit from that, but the entire north west beyond Mullingar is not benefiting from it. This is the missing piece from the jigsaw of the entire country’s network with regard to accessibility to our capital. Significant funding has been spent west of Longford, on the N5 and the N4, which I mentioned, yet there is a 50 km section in the middle that has not been completed. It was removed from the national development plan in 2008 and reinstated after a great deal of pressure. Funding was withdrawn for this year to stop the process as it was and further funding was then found. By quarter 1 of next year, there will be the preferred route option, after which the route option selection process will be finalised in quarter 2, which will give some clarity to hundreds of farmers, landowners and householders who have since 2008 not known what to do with their property or land.

I understand from comments Mr. Walsh made recently that the level of funding available is limited until 2026. Is the funding going to be in place in 2023 for the national roads office to progress that project to phase 3, environmental impact assessment and preliminary design, and, ultimately, planning permission? We do not want a repeat of what happened previously where the project was left idle for a number of years. It was then reinstated to Project Ireland 2040 and we had to go back to the start because time had passed and because of all the environmental aspects, which meant we had to spend millions of euro. Will that funding be there for that project to continue in 2023? If we are to live up to the commitment the Government has made to balanced regional development, that project will need to continue to planning permission stage and be locked in. If there is a delay with regard to funding - I fully accept there are many projects in the capital plan - at least when the project’s turn comes, we will not have to start the process all over again and waste more time. Indeed, in the intervening period, landowners might even make changes. I do not think we are getting value throughout the midlands and the north west because of this but we are entitled to it. Businesspeople and those living there are entitled to the same opportunities for investment into the region, which we are not getting because of that lack of access. Will Mr. Byrne comment on that?

The proposal from Senator Horkan with regard to the M50, which the Chair mentioned, is a credible one that needs to be looked at. It would make a massive difference to the early-morning and late-evening gridlock on the motorway. I would like it to be taken on board and progressed, with whatever by-laws need to be changed being changed.

I was disappointed to hear there is a debt write-off for some people who do not pay their fines. I pay mine on the occasions when I forget. I have a toll tag in my car but there is none in my wife's car because it is not usually necessary. It is only when we are going to the airport that we might forget about it. We might head off and then end up being fined €46, but we pay it, so I was disappointed to hear TII writes off a certain number of them. I think all the fines should be collected.