Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No. I echo the sentiments expressed, and Senator Murphy alluded to this fact, that there is great pride locally. The address where I live is Dunkettle. I cannot see the motorway but I can hear it. Nonetheless, it is a project that is a long time coming. It is great to have it. I am originally from Little Island so I am well used to traffic and people coming in and out. There are 15,000 employees in that general area. It will be totally transformative in their lives that they will not be sitting in traffic and queueing for a long time in future. Well done to the TII on that. I commend the on-site contractors, who were brilliant and very efficient to deal with. The whole aspect of messaging, communications, the app and drone footage, which occurred weekly, made it an awful lot easier from our perspective as public representatives in not having to deal with many of the queries that would ordinarily come to us. It is a pat on the back for everybody. I commend people on the good work.

Nonetheless, we come here with problems and questions. Mallow relief road was mentioned. Judging from the comments made, it was acknowledged it will receive some type of funding, approval or allocation. It is to be hoped that will be sufficient to allow it progress to where it needs to progress. If there any additional comments to be made other than those made previously, I would welcome a comment on that.

An issue I find integral, for which I am not sure that the mood music is as positive, is the northern distributor road, or the old north ring road, in Cork city. It is something I would have great concern about if it does not progress.

We are facing the prospect of that big set piece that is Dunkettle now, and the next link to the north west is the north ring road, and the whole area of bus lanes, cycle lanes and accessibility being enhanced. It would seem like a missed opportunity if that was not progressed, given that Dunkettle has progressed and it is the next logical step. Very heavy goods vehicles go through Mayfield on into Blackpool and I do not know if that is sustainable into the future. If Mr. Walsh has a comment on the north ring road, I would appreciate hearing it.

Carrigtwohill-Midleton was touched on. It is not in my constituency but I will use the Dunkettle set piece as the reason I am posing the question. As I said, to the north west of the Dunkettle interchange, there is the north ring road and, directly to its east, there is the Carrigtwohill-Midleton link. My understanding is that about 120,000 or 130,000 vehicles pass that stretch of road every day. I hear there will be some safety measures implemented on that road but it will fall short of the complete overhaul or upgrade that is probably required. I will ask a direct question related to that. Is there any other road of that nature in the country that feeds into something like the Dunkettle interchange that is as busy and as of poor of a standard? Mr. Walsh commented on the safety aspects of it earlier. There is a lot of criss-crossing on that dual carriageway and any safety enhancement will be welcome. As a genuine question, is there any other road like it in the country that is as busy and in such a poor state?

I have one more question. It is something I have been working on for about five years and I just seem to be going around in circles. I would appreciate if Mr. Walsh could bring any clarity to it. It goes back to Dunkettle as a good example. Many communities live along motorways. We think about noise mitigation measures nearly after the fact or many of the problems seem to get worse the more heavily trafficked the road becomes. Noise mitigation nearly comes afterwards. Can Mr. Walsh clarify the statutory position of implementing noise mitigation measures? I understand the county council or the local council might have the responsibility to implement noise mitigation prevention measures but they would say that they do not have any specific funding for it. I lobbied the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, for the past few years about getting a line item into the roads budget specifically to allow communities to access some kind of funding to prevent noise disruption. There are corridors along Glanmire, Dunkettle and heading east, where I live, where, when the last noise-mapping exercise was done, the decibel levels were quite high. Perhaps they are not technically in breach of the statutory level allowed. I am interested to hear any thoughts around noise mitigation, such as the funding of it, whose responsibility it is and what role TII plays in it.