Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 June 2024

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Infrastructure Guidelines: Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform

Photo of Aindrias MoynihanAindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Mr. Meaney mentioned the environmental assessment stage that will be introduced. I am thinking of projects like the N22 road going west from Cork city towards Tralee. There would have been a view that it now may be more difficult to justify the eastern side of that from an environmental point of view. There is definitely enormous pressure from the point of view of road safety. Does that carry much weight in assessing the value of a project and prioritising it if, for example, on that road people are now getting seriously injured or killed at the various junctions? From our point of view locally, it would be very important that those kinds of works would be prioritised. I would be concerned that looking at it from a carbon footprint point of view might impede moving forward with the project. I would like to hear the Department's view on that.