Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to bring to the Minister's attention a matter of which he will be aware and to which he referred. In my constituency of Kildare South, just south of Kilcullen, between junctions 2 and 3 on the M9, there is the development of an online service area in a bundle with other services areas, including in Athlone on the M6 and the Gorey bypass. I want to know why private enterprise was not given an opportunity to try to provide a site before the NRA charged in to use taxpayer's money. It went to tender previously but could not attract private sector interest. In some way, one could argue that the NRA’s sites are possibly over-spec and do not meet commercial realities. I have talked to people involved the industry who tell me it does not stack up or make commercial sense for the private sector to develop according to the current spec. Whether that is the case, this is not Germany or Italy. We are developing this site and anybody who drives north on the M9 will see the diggers onsite, but it is still at the tender stage and we have not attracted private sector investment. Moreover, the site will require the construction of another bridge, even though plenty of bridges were built when the motorway was built some years ago. Why can there not be a development like that at junction 14 at an existing bridge instead of having to build a new one? We have gone ahead with developing the site without having a private operator in place. I want to know why we are spending money on it and why Kilcullen was selected. It is a very strange choice, given that the site is a long way from Waterford. There is no question that service areas are needed along the M9 and the nearest one to Kilcullen is 25 km away. Even in the draft policy, in which the NRA references the position in Australia, Germany and Italy, most of the distances are set at 50 km, 60 km and 70 km, while TEN-T refers to a distance of 100 km. However, we are developing this site at Kilcullen which is 25 km from the nearest station, when an area much further south would have struck me as being the optimum at which to locate the first service area. I do not believe we are getting the best value for taxpayers’ money.

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