Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I understand I will share time with Deputy Timmy Dooley.

I look forward, at this late stage in the discussion, to making a few observations on the budget and overall financial position, specifically the Estimates which were published as part of a booklet circulated in the House during the Budget Statement. The debate on Estimates usually takes place at a different time of the year with the result that important issues are frequently overlooked.

Like the curate's egg, this year's Estimates are a mixture of good and not so good news. In the few short minutes since I entered the Chamber I have taken a note of the aspects of the Estimates which will affect my constituency of Laois-Offaly, especially County Laois. Most of what I have jotted down is good news for my county.

Some people are pessimistic by nature and only see bad news, while others are excessively optimistic. I take a pragmatic approach of welcoming good news and taking bad news on the chin. I recognise the need to bring forward the Budget Statement in response to the gravity of the economic position. I propose to dwell on some of the projects covered in the Estimates for 2009, which will have a tremendously beneficial effect throughout County Laois and beyond. In particular, I refer to the proposed levels of current and capital investment, which will help improve quality of life and educational, social and transport infrastructure in my county. All counties will benefit and County Laois is not special in this regard. However, as a relatively small county, it will receive a fair share of the national cake, albeit neither much more nor certainly not less than that to which it is entitled. Deputies should take ten minutes to jot down a series of points showing the activities in their constituencies which are proceeding.

Given the problems being experienced in the construction sector, it is important the Government continues to progress the national development plan. Previous Governments adopted a simplistic approach and abandoned capital investment projects when they encountered cashflow difficulties or a deficit. This approach causes major problems because necessary infrastructure is not in place when the economy improves. The Government is proceeding with its capital investment programme, albeit at a slightly slower pace than envisaged. We must prioritise and postpone rather than abandon certain projects. This means it may take seven years rather than five years to complete projects under the national development plan. In view of the current economic circumstances, this is not a bad position.

People need certainty that projects will proceed, provided it can be shown that they will provide short-term or long-term economic benefits. This has been the priority of the Government in the national development plan.

While Deputies may find some of the issues I raise marginally parochial, lessons can be learned from the topics I propose to discuss because public representatives deal with identical issues every week. They are, therefore, as relevant in other areas as they are in my constituency. I will focus, in particular, on how the national development plan will affect County Laois. In the Estimates for the coming year, the National Roads Authority, under the aegis of the Department of Transport, will proceed at full tilt with the construction of the M7 and M8 motorway projects. This project will deliver high class motorways linking Dublin and Limerick and Dublin and Cork, respectively. The projects, both of which include construction in County Laois, have been under way since earlier this year.

Given that discussion of routes and other issues commenced in 1999 and there have been no unforeseen delays in the intervening period, it baffles me that a contract for the motorway project in my county was not signed until 2007. While I accept that work done at the early stages means fewer difficulties will arise in the long term, I fail to understand the reason that the design and planning stage of projects account for at least 80% of their timescale, whereas the construction element is squeezed, concertina-like, into the final 20% of the project lifetime. Be that as it may, tremendous work is taking place on the motorway project which is worth several hundred million. The project is coming into full swing and early this year, a headcount revealed that 1,400 people were employed on the contract while 14 different items of plant and equipment, ranging from the largest cranes in the State to JCBs and forklift trucks, were in operation.

The reason for the project is not only to provide employment but to link our major cities. I am a fan of motorways. One of the factors overlooked in the debate about these routes is their contribution to road safety. Many of the main causes of road traffic accidents — I refer to collisions during overtaking manoeuvres or at busy junctions rather than the single vehicle accidents which occur late at night at weekends — are removed when motorways are constructed. In the past ten years, 12 fatalities have occurred on the stretch of the N7, a national primary route, within 1.5 miles of my home in Castletown. I remember each and every incident and the principal reason they occurred is that the N7 is a busy, two-way road. I look forward to the opening of the new motorways as drivers will no longer meet oncoming traffic when overtaking and they will be served by graduated junctions and properly constructed roundabouts rather than dangerous junctions at crossroads.

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