Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo the sentiments of a number of Deputies, in particular those of Deputy Healy-Rae, who mentioned Adare. Its bypass has been approved and work on the Limerick-Foynes Port route is ongoing. It has been deemed a tier 1 port in Europe.

I wish again to raise the provision of a spur road at Croagh on the proposed Limerick-Foynes route. Croagh is home to 200 jobs and 11 or 12 family businesses, but no spur road has been provided to the village. Croagh has been absent from the talk of rural connectivity and regeneration. A number of meetings have been held by Limerick City and County Council on this matter and a motion was passed by all councillors who were present to provide the spur road. The cost has been used as an excuse, but I do not buy it, given that a considerable amount of money has been allocated to the overall project. I do not know why the village of Croagh cannot be included. A three or four-month review has been mentioned, but I do not buy that either. This project could be undertaken much faster. Another excuse is that a spur road can only be built every 11-12 km. That does not wash, given what happens on other national primary routes. We must use every power available to us to ensure that pressure is placed on Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and the powers that be to provide a spur road at Croagh.

A motorway between Cork and Limerick is needed immediately. This project was shelved as a result of the economic crash a number of years ago, so I welcome the fact that it has entered the planning phase. I thank the Minister of State in that regard. Some €20 million has been spent on planning so far, with a further €1 million to be spent now. A plan is required immediately if we are to meet our target of 300,000 jobs for the southern region and develop it as a counterbalance to the eastern seaboard. The Cork-Limerick-Galway Atlantic western corridor that has been talked about since 2004 is needed urgently. Some €2.6 billion extra in capital spending can be allocated. This motorway needs €800 million. Building it would take a number of years, but we want to concentrate on the most dangerous points along the route, for example, from Croom to Mallow, which is the narrowest part of the road.

A number of roads that have been downgraded often have lower speed limits than primary roads that are of poorer quality. A speed limit review is necessary.

I wish to discuss regional and rural roads. I was still a councillor 12 months ago and was working on this matter with the local authority. We used to have tertiary road grants. They vanished in the crash, followed by the LIS and, later, councillors' discretionary funding. The Government has worked with people on improving the economy and giving the benefits of that to roads, so I find it difficult to take when the other side of the House fails to mention all of that and seems to abdicate responsibility.

As Deputy Healy-Rae stated, junctions pose the greatest danger at the moment. A countrywide programme of low-cost improvements to junctions needs to be put together. It would be a front-loaded, one-off investment. The roads are the same width now that they were 30 years ago, but there is a higher volume of traffic and vehicles are wider. As such, junctions are more dangerous. The investment would make them safer by, for instance, removing hedges and blind bends. The Minister and local authorities should discuss how to devolve some power to the latter so that they can, for example, use development contributions, which seem to have increased in recent years owing to an increase in the number of developments. Perhaps a percentage of these contributions could be used to top up the existing funding.

We must come to this Chamber with ideas and solutions. We need more funding, but we also need to start putting our heads together, find solutions and use the financial fruit of the economic recovery.

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