P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

The south-west corridor does not touch one inch of Cork South-West, yet that is an important bulwark of the south-west region. Proper road infrastructure is of paramount importance and it is the keynote to success and to any region's sustainability.

I live 240 miles from Dublin in the picturesque village of Goleen on the Mizen peninsula. I must travel one third of that distance in my car before I meet a dual carriageway on the road to Dublin. Cork South-West is deprived of industrial development by an inadequate road structure.

A relief road is long overdue for Bantry town, whose inhabitants are subjected to huge juggernaut lorries conveying fish from the south-west port of Castletownbere to the Continent. They must pass through that narrow network of streets in Bantry. We have been waiting for a relief road for the past 15 years. The land has been acquired and I ask the reason it has not been commenced. The inhabitants of Bantry town must put up with this inconvenience. The life blood and livelihood of the town is being strangled for the want of a proper road infrastructure. I invite the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Noel Dempsey, and his Ministers of State, to come to that picturesque area of Ireland this summer and spend a weekend there, if they are unable to spend a week or a fortnight, to see at first hand the serious situation that appertains to traffic in that town.

A proper relief road is vital for Bandon town where half a relief road was constructed 12 years ago. Since then, not a single yard of the remaining half has been completed. Why is there that deadlock in Bandon town? The road from Bandon to Bantry via Dunmanway should be upgraded to the status of at least a national secondary route.

Seven sections of the Bill are devoted to tolls and tolling systems. What good are they to the inhabitants of west Cork? The people of south-west Cork are entitled to the same concessions as all other citizens of this country, and the same service levels prevailing in Dublin, the midlands and elsewhere. Unfortunately, we are not getting that. Let us hope that, before long, this Bill has some repercussions that improve the situation. I see from section 46(3) that the Minister may now declare a proposed road to be a motorway under subsection (1).

In conclusion, I would like to amend the Roads Bill 2007 to allow the Minister to upgrade the road from Cork to Skibbereen and Bantry from a national secondary route to a national primary route. That is not too much to ask the Minister if he wishes to make up for the neglect of west Cork over the past 50 years.

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