Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this matter. The R630 is a regional road linking Whitegate with the N25, a national primary road at Midleton, and Lakeview roundabout in east Cork, which serves the Cork to Rosslore Europort via Waterford city. This regional road from Whitegate also carries traffic from adjoining areas such as Upper Aghada, Lower Aghada, Rostellan, Saleen, Ballycotton, Clyne and Ballinacurra, just to mention a few locations.

Whitegate village can boast to be the home of the only oil refinery in Ireland but the most startling fact is that it accounts for over 40% of Cork's road tonnage, and it travels on the R630 all year around. There is also Aghada power station, which is Ireland's largest, and this means the regional route is extremely busy. The Minister can understand why. Unfortunately, all this traffic must enter the N25 at Lakeview roundabout at Midleton, which is constantly choked with long tailbacks every morning. Midleton town council had approached what was then the National Roads Authority, now Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, a number of years ago about having an extra slip lane at the junction between the R630 Whitegate route and the N25 to alleviate this very problem. Unfortunately, over the years nothing has happened.

The commuters who use this route day in and day out have grown very frustrated with the lack of progress. More worrying is the question of safety in the area, particularly with regard to emergency services and the ambulance service in Midleton. I received information from the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, recently indicating that the new ambulance base is to be in Ballinacurra, which is on the R630 road. From seeing all these tailbacks, I know that if the problem remains, we should fear for people's safety.

As well as all the people who use the route, I would like to know if TII will make use of the land adjacent to the Lakeview roundabout and put in an extra lane leading to Cork from the Whitegate road, thus alleviating this very serious congestion problem. I spoke to the Minister very briefly about this a while ago. It is basically a T-junction with the national route - the N25 - and the R630, which comes to a pinch point at the roundabout. There is enough land on the left to install a slip or feeder lane but there has never been support from TII. There is a large population in the area that travels the road and I mentioned some of the towns and villages. Very large trucks also use the road, and as I mentioned, fuel being taken from Whitegate accounts for some of the 40% of tonnage travelling in Cork. There is also counter-flow with the population working and living in the area. If the Minister could see the road on any morning, he would see tailbacks from Lakeview roundabout to Ballinacurra, which is the bones of a mile away. We cannot alleviate the problem unless a slip road is installed.

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