Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I will begin by congratulating my fellow Corkonian, Deputy Billy Kelleher, on his recent elevation and wish him good luck in his position.

I have a number of observations on reading the Bill. A very obvious one is that the Minister almost by means of a magic wand can now change the designation of a dual carriageway to a motorway. There is more to that than the Minister simply coming in and making that decision.

Last year, in his former portfolio as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Dick Roche spoke about the need for noise pollution and other environmental measures to be in place as a result of an EU directive. These matters are still outstanding. In my constituency of Cork South Central where motorways were built approximately ten years ago, many of the environmental standards and motorway requirements that should be in place are outstanding. If we were building these roads now, they would not be built in the fashion in which they have been built. The survey work to itemise and highlight the different difficulties and environmental noise pollution being experienced has been done but when will we see the funds freed up and the proper noise restrictions put in place in these areas? In areas like Capwell and Slieve Mish and around Turner's Cross, people cannot use their back gardens because of these motorways and increasing traffic usage.

Another matter, which I suppose is the bigger picture, is the absence of joined-up thinking in the development of our roads network in recent years. An obvious case is the South Link road in my constituency where a very successful flyover was put in place on the Kinsale road roundabout and where we are now awaiting the completion of roundabouts on Sarsfield Road and Bandon Road. Once again, the council has carried out the preliminary survey work and we are waiting on the NRA to come in with the finances. This is just one example of disjointed action. On the one hand, we have the NRA, while on the other, we have local authorities. When one tries to pin down Ministers on issues relating to road works, they wash their hands and say it is the responsibility of the NRA.

We are approaching 2009. The county development plans are about to be rolled out and we will see major rezoning, including industrial, light industrial, commercial and particularly residential rezoning, taking place across the country. We do not have a system where the roads plans we have for this country are tied to that type of rezoning. What tends to happen is that roads are built and we then look at rezoning or we look at rezoning and then look at roads. Once again, I point to my constituency of Cork South Central. Right across the necklace of the south of the city, regardless of whether it is from Rochestown, Douglas, Carrigaline, Ballygarvan, Lehenaghmore and right over as far as Bishopstown, over the past 15 years we have seen housing estate after housing estate being built. Thousands of houses have been built in Cork and in major satellite towns along country boreens. In effect, people come out of their brand new homes in the morning, get into their cars, drive on a road which is probably yet to be taken in charge by the local authority because it is so new and, when they come to the end of that road, in places like Maryborough Hill or Donnybrook Hill, they come out on to a country boreen. The same thing happens in Carrigaline. This is something the Bill should address but I see no mention of it. A situation should not arise where we look at maps, see roads where two cars would struggle to get up and down if they met one another coming in opposite directions and yet facilitate the development of major housing estates of between 500 and 1,000 houses.

The previous speaker mentioned the use of buses on our road networks. By means of a parliamentary question, I recently discovered that there is a bus in Cork with mileage equal to the distance between here and the moon and back and half way back up again. That bus is being driven around Cork city as I speak.

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