Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

I thank the Deputy. As she rightly states, businesses in the west, particularly in the north west, are very concerned about the access infrastructure. It has a very significant impact on inward investment decisions and sustainability of the existing jobs for indigenous companies. It has a major impact on the cost of getting product to market. In the context of Brexit it becomes a renewed challenge. Ireland will be the single most remote member of the European Union post Brexit. We will face additional complexities and delays of getting product to market through Border checks, through a UK landbridge and we do not know the challenges and delays that will occur. These factors are all becoming more significant. I think it is clear from the national infrastructure map that we did not finish the job the last time in terms of connecting the west and the north west of the country with Dublin and we have made no progress in terms of connecting the regions to each other. They would be our two immediate priorities in terms of road upgrades. The rationale for an N4 and N5 upgrade is very significant. When one considers the strength of the enterprise base and what it is contributing to the local economy it more than pays for itself to make that road investment.

The other major issue we need to take into account when we look at the 2020-2040 vision for the country is that if we plan on the basis of current trends, we will get a very different answer from planning on the basis of what the potential of the region would be if it had sufficient infrastructure. We have to take a certain approach of build it and they will come to the provision of infrastructure, otherwise we will create a self-fulfilling prophesy for many of the regions that they will continue to decline over time. Our north west region is the only part of the country that had a falling population between the census of 2011 and 2016. Everywhere else the population of the country is rising. Clearly there is a correlation, we think, to the poor level of infrastructure of that region.

The western rail corridor has not been a very significant business issue. It needs to be able to support itself predominantly from a socio-economic basis and if those arguments can be made, it would be important for the tourism infrastructure in particular. It would support businesses though tourism.