Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response, which he made in good faith. Most of the answer is Civil Service boilerplate text. It essentially says that future investments will be considered in line with the future investment strategy at some point in the future. I acknowledge that minor work is being done to the southbound route at Kilmacanogue, which is useful. However, much of the early morning congestion occurs around the village in the northbound route. There is nothing in the reply that says there will be relief of the existing congestion. It will get worse. I appreciate there are demands for capital investment in roads all over the country but the N11 is an extreme case. Anecdotally, every morning, given every road that could be reported on in the country by AA Roadwatch, early congestion on the N11 features. Most roads are not car parks by 6.45 a.m. On top of that, there is a lack of public transport. There is over-capacity on Irish Rail heading north in the morning. The chief executive officer of the company told me that this will worsen over the coming years because no new rolling stock will be available. Most of County Wicklow is not well served by buses and, therefore, the only available option for many workers from the county is to use the N11. Will the Minister request from his Department or the relevant State agency a comparative analysis to identify where the congestion is worst in the list of competing demands, which I accept? Which roads are the first to become congested in the morning? If the N11 is on the list, I ask that priority be given this year to the design and implementation of the works identified by TII for the road. North Wicklow has been identified as a high growth area. The development in Fassaroe will provide 3,000 houses in the middle of a housing crisis. The biggest impediment to that is lack of investment in the N11. Will the Minister factor that in? Perhaps he will write back to me or we can meet to see if that can help expedite investment to alleviate the ongoing congestion.

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