Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I want to make a point about the A5, which was mentioned by previous speakers. It is important to realise to complexity of that particular project, which will bring investment to the north west. It is important to state a few facts. The Fianna Fáil Party, in its programme for Government, did not have one single penny for that capital project. Sinn Féin produced a pre-budget submission yesterday that did not make one reference to the A5 programme. It is important that we get a bit more illumination on that point.

I would like to acknowledge the role played by Deputy McDonald's colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn. Once this debate emerged last week, there was much grandstanding, jumping up and down and noise made about a project being shelved, even though it is not being shelved. Obviously, it is being reprofiled due to the economic situation, but it is important to say that this project is still alive. There is a critical meeting this Friday of the North-South Ministerial Council that will decide on how we move forward with the project. I acknowledge the role Deputy Mac Lochlainn has played in having a little bit of calm about this. Ultimately, it is sensitive to a region, it cuts across jurisdictions and parties and the mechanisms towards which we aspire through the North-South Parliamentary Forum will be critical to developing integrated projects.

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