Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

A number of issues arise in such a large volume of questions and we will not get time to get through everything but specifically arising out of the Taoiseach's reply and in the context of Question No. 15, and the question relating to Dr. Alaisdair McDonnell and the issues of common concern, the Taoiseach referred to the A5 project as a deferral rather than an abandonment. Originally, it was announced as an abandonment of the road project. When I first heard about this I said one could be cynical and say there are no votes for Fine Gael or Labour in the North. This is the first serious doubt that has been put on a project, and several projects in terms of infrastructure, that had an all-island context to it and that was putting flesh on the bone in terms of a genuine development of synergies between the Northern Ireland economy and the economy of the Republic because we bemoaned for years the lack of two-way traffic. That is the reason InterTradeIreland was established to develop stronger links and synergies between businesses on both sides of the Border. I saw this as a significant decision by the former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, who drove it when he was Minister for Finance and subsequently as Taoiseach, but it also makes sense in terms of enhancing the productive capacity of the island's economy.

I appeal to the Taoiseach to reverse the decision because there is a danger that we are playing politics with the projects in terms of throwing a few bob a year at them to keep them afloat but in essence it will be a long way down the line before anything will happen. Commitments had been entered into and given the shared journey we have travelled on the island of Ireland regarding all of the issues, this one issue of the infrastructural development and the road projects were moving the situation into a new territory and a new phase, and I believe it will come back to haunt the State if it is seen to be resiling from heartfelt commitments given not just by the previous Government, but by the entire Oireachtas in voting through the moneys for those projects.

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