Cecilia Keaveney (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

It is with mixed feelings that I discuss Transport 21. I agree with Deputy Michael Higgins regarding integration and the necessary regional approach. Perhaps it is for this reason that the north west has often failed to have lines on maps recognised, particularly in respect of transport infrastructure.

Unfortunately, a good, simple and clear reason for this is that most access to County Donegal is through a jurisdiction for which we cannot legislate or plan. Will those with influence over getting the Northern Executive up and running as soon as possible do so and avail of the significant funding offered by the British Chancellor, Mr. Gordon Brown, and our Government to try to raise Northern Ireland's roads to a certain standard? Donegal was frowned upon because of its poor road infrastructure, but the tide has turned. When one reaches the Border, one encounters worse infrastructure in the North. Infrastructural funding is key to our development. Unless the north west is seen as a region, with lines on maps that enter and exit it, things will go nowhere.

Cross-Border co-operation on the Dublin-Belfast motorway galled us, as did the Dublin-Galway, Dublin-Limerick, Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Waterford developments. We are looking forward to the new national development plan because we want the line on the map and we want the N2-A5 upgraded to motorway status. Significant improvements have been made to the road and Transport 21's national improvements will also benefit the people of County Donegal. To go anywhere in Donegal, usually one needs to leave the county.

It was with great amusement that people learned of our road to Waterford. Rather than the traditional route of taking the shortest way to Waterford, we will have a road that links us via the western and southern coasts. When visiting my brother in Cobh, I will be well served by a wonderful road network. While most people appreciate the benefits, such as tourists in County Kerry travelling as far as Donegal, most people want to be able to reach our capital city and want business people there to be able to access the north west as easily as anywhere else.

The Dublin-Derry-Letterkenny motorway is important. At this point, the 2+1 projections discussed with the NRA would improve the situation, but why should we not be provided with a motorway? Representatives of IBEC and the CBI with whom I spoke at a recent sub-committee meeting of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body in Belfast supported the emphasis on Donegal. I pointed out that while most people emphasise the Dublin-Belfast corridor, it was time for business people to speak out on the western corridor's development, the A5 road in our case, as much as politicians do.

It is also important that the east-west link between Belfast and Letterkenny and beyond be developed, because the road's quality has diminished despite an increased number of people using it. The time required to get anywhere is substantially longer than it has been even recently. I hope the Letterkenny-Lifford expansion will be included in the development.

I do not understand why we cannot have a train system. I listened to my colleagues from the west extolling the virtues of the western rail corridor and I am disgusted with the fact Donegal, while it used to appear in some of the posters on the western corridor route, was never advocated as a place to which the train would go. What was wrong with the west, including Donegal? Donegal is usually included in campaigns relating to the west and we are in the western region for many other purposes. I cannot see any physical reason why a train cannot set out from Dublin and stop in Derry. We put substantial investment into the Enterprise service, which is excellent because it takes only two hours to get from Dublin to Belfast, and there is no reason we cannot look for cross-Border funding at European level to make further investment in the Derry-Belfast stretch and have a direct train service from Dublin to Derry. I do not rule out reopening some of the line into Donegal and ultimately having an all-Ireland service that would loop the country.

We want infrastructure so people can get about and so business people and tourists can access all areas. If a person buys an Interrail ticket in Europe or uses a student travel pass in Ireland he or she cannot get to Donegal by train. When I table parliamentary questions Ministers reply to the effect there are buses but we want trains, motorways and the ability to access locations as easily as in other parts of the country.

In the last national development plan we were not in a position to, if politically sensitive people pardon the expression, infiltrate the North with lines but the context is different now and the opportunity cannot be missed. As a recent example of this, at the Ard-Fheis the Taoiseach announced there would be a development of the Ulster Canal to link Coleraine, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford. If that project to join up a line is politically acceptable in the North then the rest of the Six Counties, having suffered from underdevelopment in regional infrastructure, must not be left out of the next national development plan, which I am assured is to be unveiled in the near future. It cannot be put on the long finger any more.

We should also recognise the fact we are an island. Given rising transport costs, so many lorries on the roads and the difficulties caused by an increasing number of cars, alternative methods of moving cargo should be explored. We should put more investment into the marine sector. Marine infrastructure should be part of our transport infrastructure and receive as much emphasis as other modes of transport.

I will introduce a parochial aspect. In the entire Inishowen Peninsula, in my constituency, there are no national primary routes and only a couple of miles of national secondary routes serving 30,000 people. The changes in the speed limits to 80 km/h mean we cannot move any faster throughout the peninsula. Safety is very important but people are trying to get around at the equivalent of 50 mph on roads which are of a generally high standard. There must be a way of upgrading the Inishowen 100 to national secondary level so we can bring the speed limit up to the equivalent of 60 mph. I would not ask for that if I was not confident that most of the road surfaces could absorb that speed. It is an important issue which must be progressed.

Investment in infrastructure will benefit locals, businesspeople and tourists alike. Investment in roads will help public transport and investment in the train service, no matter in what region, will indirectly impact everywhere else. The number of bypasses on the N2 have helped people get to and from Donegal. In the context of the current discussions on getting the executive up and running in Northern Ireland we must do what was outlined in the north west gateway initiative, namely planning and developing regionally and putting those lines on the map which for political or other reasons were not deemed sensible in the past. That has taken place with the Ulster Canal and motorways and a direct train service into the north west must follow.

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