Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Wallace for his question which relates to a road with which he and I are both familiar for obvious reasons. I travel on it every day, including this morning. As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. The planning, design and implementation of individual national road projects is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. Within its capital budget, the assessment and prioritisation of individual projects is a matter in the first instance for TII in accordance with section 19 of the Roads Act.

I understand from TII that the aim of the strategic study of the M11-N11 corridor is to consider the National Transport Authority's Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area 2016-2035, which has identified that, in addition to public transport improvements or investments along the M11-N11 corridor, additional road infrastructure or capacity is required. TII has considered various possible interventions to reduce congestion on the corridor and cater for continued growth in the Wicklow area. These interventions include upgrades to the M11 junctions, widening of sections of the M11 to three lanes, provision of service roads to address direct access and some local road improvements to assist in providing better links between local areas.

As stated in the report, the proposals in the study are indicative at this stage and need further development, including engineering design and appraisal. Accordingly, a full costing of the proposals is not available at this point.

See this speech in context