Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill and I am pleased to speak on it. It is a confirmation of general Government policy to consolidate many of our State agencies where it makes sense to do so. I stand to be corrected but I believe that since this Government came to office we have abolished approximately 40 agencies to save costs. That is prudent governance, and I welcome all those moves. This is a welcome addition to those moves that will not only save money but make sense. It is also appropriate in an era when we do not have the same capital investment in our transport infrastructure that we had in the late 1990s and from 2000 to 2007 and 2008. Much of that capital investment was very welcome and it resulted in many of the infrastructural projects we see today, particularly in our motorway and rail infrastructure, but it has come at a huge cost. It is fair to say that from 1997 to 2007, from figures provided by the Comptroller and Auditor General and from elsewhere, the cost overruns and the management issues around the delivery of our national primary routes meant that the expenditure came in at €3.5 billion above the projections. That is a scandalous figure from our recent history, on which we should reflect, because if we had that kind of money available to us now, we could deliver much more on capital investments. One would think over that period that nobody else in the country or in the world had ever built a road. We completely mismanaged the delivery of these projects, and we are still paying for that mismanagement.

Thankfully, since 2007, the NRA has done an extraordinary job in delivering projects, ahead of schedule in almost all cases and ahead of budget. That must be welcomed. It has stepped up to the mark in that regard in recent years.

The next step is the amalgamation of the functions of the NRA and the Railway Procurement Agency, which makes sense because of the huge overlap in terms of procurement, design, IT and different specialties. The new agency will benefit enormously from the shared knowledge and expertise these two agencies will bring to the table, aside from the fact that in the medium term we will see annual savings of between €3 million to €4 million. That is a welcome initiative. I note that there will be some initial costs as a result of this amalgamation, but they will be greatly outdone by the annual savings.

We do not have a rail infrastructure in my constituency of Cork South West. We have not had a rail infrastructure in Cork South West since the 1950s, and there is an important lesson to be learned from that. I listened to Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan's contribution. I do not often agree with the Deputy but I agree with him that where rail infrastructure, for example, needs to be replaced or even removed, a corridor should be left in place. When the rail infrastructure in west Cork was removed it was a narrow-minded decision to allow the corridor be returned to landowners. That corridor would be an invaluable resource today and would, if the analysis stacks up, allow for the delivery of a rail infrastructure back to west Cork.

The only national road infrastructure in the entire west Cork area is the national secondary route, the N71, which has been starved of investment. It is a single carriageway running from Cork city along the coast to Bantry and south Kerry. It has to contend with tourist traffic, construction and agricultural vehicles, day-to-day traffic and pedestrians. One simply cannot make a safe journey along it at speeds that could reasonably be expected on national routes in other parts of the country. I urge the new agency to seriously consider a targeted investment programme to improve the N71.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sports has undertaken a major initiative in respect of the wild Atlantic way which will be vital to the future of tourism in this country. I would like to see a single agency playing a decisive role in the development of this route by assessing its usage by visitors and locals alike in the various local authority areas. Depending on one's point of view, it starts either in Fanad or Kinsale and passes through the various local authority areas along the west coast. Much of the road infrastructure is local or regional roads but other parts consist of national routes. I foresee problems in managing what will be one of Europe's most iconic tourist routes and hope the new body will play a supervisory role in the maintenance and development of the route.

Public-private partnerships are increasingly important in delivering transport infrastructure. The relationship between the State and private companies has evolved and we would be naive not to learn lessons or change policies, when appropriate. It is worth considering one project now coming to an end, namely, the East Link toll bridge. It is far from my constituency, but it is relevant to consider whether it has achieved the best possible value for money. The bridge cost approximately £6.1 million to construct, but in the past 30 years commuters have paid between €60 million and €80 million in tolls to National Toll Roads, Dublin City Council and Dublin Port. Have we learned lessons from the project that can help us to better manage PPP projects in a period in which funding is challenging? Similar questions arise about the Limerick tunnel. I understand a subsidy will be required for the tunnel because traffic volumes are not as large as expected. I hope we will see greater volumes of commercial and other traffic as the economy picks up and that the subsidies can be clawed back as volumes increase.

This is a significant Bill that forms part of a wider Government policy to amalgamate and consolidate agencies. I hope the new agency will benefit from the pooled expertise of the NRA and the RPA and look forward to much improved investment along the N71 in my constituency.

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