Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

I would appreciate that. In fairness, I only got it yesterday evening and I would appreciate if the Minister of State did that. I know there is a lot of money which the Minister of State spoke about earlier and there is the positive roll-out of public transport, which I noted earlier. I know he is probably not connected to this but I will turn to the roads budget. It is not his area but transport is transport and a road is a road, whether a car is being used or a tractor.

The situation we find ourselves in in west Cork is that since the bypass for Skibbereen, which could be 30 years ago - though I could be wrong - there has not been a brown cent spent other than on pothole repair. There has not been a passing bay. With the northern relief road in Bandon, there is a couple of quid to draw up another fancy report which will probably be a nice few quid for someone along the line but my brother, Councillor John Collins, asked the other day at one of the those public meetings when there will be a bucket on the ground. People want buckets on the ground. They want their bypasses put in place. They could not tell him, so that is not going to happen. With the southern and northern relief roads for Bandon, Clonakilty relief road, Bantry relief road there is nothing other than reports and kicking the can down the road.

There are no passing bays either. The Minister of State told me he would come down to west Cork and I certainly will invite him at the appropriate time. However, if he comes down, especially during the summer, he could be caught from Bandon to Clonakilty behind a tractor. That is an astonishing situation to find yourself in as a motorist. I would love to tell the Minister of State to use the train but that is not there, so we have to use what is available to us. My point is simple: passing bays have not even been considered. I am not sure whether it comes under the Minister of State's brief but if it does not I would appreciate it if he could go cap in hand - because no disrespect to him but I thought it was the Minister who was going to be here and it does come under the Minister's brief - and fight for the people of west Cork. He is a Corkman and he will certainly come down to west Cork and he understands what I am saying. I am not making it up. It is not just something I have come up with off the top of my head. I am at it every day of the week. I am at it since I came into politics into 2014 at local level. Simple passing bays would be an almighty start, but nobody is willing to invest. There is no future thinking. It is just that is the way it was 25 years ago and 30 years ago, so drive on. There is more traffic on the road and we need simple passing bays on our bypasses to be got to the point where we can say in five years' time there is a bucket on the ground and it is going to happen, rather than in 25 years.