Mr. Seamus Butler:

I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, and the committee for granting us the opportunity to address members. We represent nine chambers of commerce from the north midlands and the north west, an area that has a major infrastructural deficit on the N4 and N5 routes. The chambers are from Longford, Athlone, Ballina, Carrick-on-Shannon, Letterkenny, Mayo, Mullingar, Roscommon and Sligo. Many of the chambers are represented here today and some of the local authorities in the area are also represented.

Dr. Brian McCann, the programme co-ordinator of postgraduate education in road and transport engineering at Sligo IT will speak next on the technical and economic viewpoint, followed by Mr. Ciaran Corcoran, the site manager at Abbot Diagnostics in Longford and also president of IBEC in the midlands, who will speak from the business perspective. I understand we may have a question-and-answer session after that. Also present, as the Chairman mentioned, is Ms Lisa Brady, CEO of Sligo Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Mr. Bill Carty, former group finance director of Abbot Ireland.

The N4-N5 is the last spoke in the national roads radial network connecting the nation to our capital city. That should be an overarching priority over much-needed intercity connections. Most of the other radials have been completed to motorway or class 1 dual carriageway standard. The north midlands and the north west is a national asset waiting to be unlocked. The N4 and N5 area that is served by the chambers serves a population of 650,000. That is 14% of the population. There are 100,000 people living within 5 km of the N4. That provides an ideal opportunity for a development corridor, which would take the pressure off the east coast and the greater Dublin area.

We ask the committee today to consider five objectives and to include them in the review of the capital programme which is currently under way. We call for the completion of all pre-construction works, namely, the design and CPO works, in order that construction of the remainder of the N4 motorway from Mullingar to Roosky will commence by 2021. We also seek completion of all the planning and pre-construction work leading to the commencement of the construction of the N4 Dromod-to-Carrick-on-Shannon bypass by 2021. We are looking for construction on the N5 from Scramoge to Ballaghaderreen to commence in 2018 and be completed by 2021. That would also provide extra access to the international airport at Knock.

We wish to confirm that construction will commence on the N4 from Collooney to Castlebaldwin in 2018 and be completed by 2020. A safety issue has arisen in that regard. Similarly, we seek that construction on the N5 from Westport to Turlough will commence in 2018 and be completed by 2021.

I will now hand over to Dr. Brian McCann.