Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue after many attempts. I thank the Minister for Health for his presence. Undoubtedly, he will be aware of the impending decision of An Bord Pleanála regarding the national forensic mental hospital facility to be constructed in Portrane. There are grave concerns within the community about the routing of construction traffic, estimated at 30 trucks per day, in both directions through a small regional road and the village of Donabate. Approximately 10,000 people live between the two towns. The area's roads infrastructure is not up to the standard one would expect for such traffic movements.

I should preface my statements by saying that this project is very welcome among people in Donabate and Portrane, where there is overwhelming support for it. Of the 50 or so people with whom I have corresponded, only one questioned the decision to locate the facility in Portrane. As it so happened, that person was from Dundrum, which is from where the facility is being relocated.

The traffic issue will not go away. A decision will be made by 29 May. Although it may come sooner, I understand that there is a possibility that a decision may be delayed depending on whether An Bord Pleanála seeks additional information from the HSE or decides to assess its inspector's report. Traffic for the project will pass four schools of hundreds of children, a sports centre and a number of sporting clubs that are located around the site of St. Ita's Hospital in Portrane. The alternative is a temporary road, which forms part of the Donabate local area plan passed by Fingal County Council a number of years ago when I was a member of that authority. The temporary road project was to cost in the region of €1 million, but the offset cost that the HSE will have to meet to repair the local roads after and during the facility's construction will run into hundreds of thousands of euro, as we saw when the wastewater treatment facility was being constructed in Portrane in recent years and Fingal County Council had to reinstate roads that were completely destroyed by a far smaller number of heavy goods vehicles, HGVs, entering the site.

A hospital being built means large-scale precasts and units for lift shafts and the likes. These require long vehicles, which cannot pass one another on the bridge into Donabate village. For example, buses cannot pass one another on that bridge. Three roads meet there. The bridge was built when the rail line was created in the middle of the 1850s. Although there is new tarmac on the bridge, I am not convinced it can support two 50-tonne trucks at the same time.

While I do not expect the Minister to involve himself in the planning process, he has opportunities to speak with the HSE and to convey to it the importance of re-examining this issue on foot of An Bord Pleanála's imminent decision. I would be interested in hearing his comments on the matter.

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