Mark Duffy (Fine Gael)

The reason I ask is that I am new to the Oireachtas this year but all my lifetime I have been hearing about proposals to address traffic congestion in Ballina in particular. The mid-1840s was the last time we had a significant and substantial investment in road transport. That was the building of the Ham Bridge over the River Moy. A few years later the Lower Bridge was developed. They were both built in the 1840s in the 19th century. Later in that century, another crossing of the River Moy at Foxford was built. There was nothing in the 20th century, and we are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century without any additional substantial infrastructure investment for transport in Ballina or north Mayo. There is a constraint with the River Moy crossing. That is understandable but it is not an excuse not to develop or deliver. What I am asking for today is that there be a dedicated and intensive analysis by TII on a plan for relief of congestion of the town. The whole region, west Sligo and north Mayo, is relying on two 19th-century bridges that have one-way traffic flow. We have spent hundreds of thousands of euro on consultants through the transport plans that have been funded over recent years, and we have Mayo County Council basically caught up in applying to TII for low-cost safety measures and trying to sort out fixing of traffic lights, which should not be within the competence of TII because it has a lot of other more pressing projects to deliver. It took us two years to address traffic light changes. We were told by engineers that that was because we were waiting for sign-off from TII. That should not be happening. Low-cost safety interventions, maintenance of traffic lights and such competencies should be devolved to local authorities so TII can get on with the more substantial projects we are talking about here that are nation-building and that can be transformational for the country. I would welcome the witnesses' thoughts on that in a Ballina context in relation to an orbital route over the River Moy.