Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply and his recognition of the very serious concerns of the local community. If I travel from Cavan Town to Clones, I must travel into County Fermanagh on three different occasions. There is a serious policing difficulty in regard to particular stretches of that road. I fully realise there are no easy resolutions to these difficulties.

The North-South Joint Ministerial Council met the Clones joint policing committee in 2011. At that meeting, they agreed to convene a meeting of all the relevant statutory agencies, both North and South. A preliminary date was set verbally on the telephone for such a follow-up meeting. Subsequently, the secretariat wrote stating that it had made contact with the various statutory agencies, both central and local, and that there was nothing further it could do in regard to convening a meeting.

The Tánaiste will accept that by sitting the representatives of statutory agencies around a table, people can outline what they can do and the limits on what they can do. On the evening of the meeting with the Clones joint policing committee, the town clerk, a very conscientious official, and the then mayor of Clones Town Council, Deirdre Kelly, wrote a follow-up letter to the joint secretariat pointing out again the difficulties facing people travelling on that road. There is very heavy volume of ambulance traffic because it is the route between Cavan General Hospital and Monaghan General Hospital. People living along that road are concerned when these anti-social and dangerous driving practices take place.

We all know that much can be achieved by sitting down together instead of by writing to one another. The Garda Síochána has been doing everything possible and I have spoken to gardaí at local level and, through the Minister, at senior level. I appreciate the Tánaiste's offer to raise the issue at the North-South Ministerial Council but I suggest that he puts it to the council to let the secretariat call a meeting of all the interested parties and outline what can and cannot be done. Will he convey to the local citizens in counties Fermanagh, Monaghan and Cavan that we want to see these issues dealt with and that we do not underestimate the worries of the local community?

See this speech in context