Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. I do not plan to take that much time.

I welcome the funding of approximately €900 million for the M20 Cork to Limerick route. All affected, including the chambers of commerce in Cork and Limerick, which did much work on this issue in terms of making submissions, various community groups, businesses and individuals who travel the route every day for work and other purposes are very welcoming of there finally being a financial commitment to the project. I travelled from my home town of Mallow to Galway yesterday and then on to Dublin. It is quite difficult to travel between Mallow, Buttevant and Charleville and there are serious traffic constraints. Once one reaches Limerick, however, it is a joy to travel on to Galway, while, similarly, if one is travelling east towards Dublin, it is a seamless journey for anyone partaking of it. When selecting the route for the M20 between Cork and Limerick, I ask that the Government take account of the serious blockages at Mallow, Buttevant and Charleville. Those towns deserve to be freed of such congestion and running the route somewhere adjacent to them would be the most advisable and sensible option.

The town of Cobh, known locally as the great island of Cobh, which has only one access route, is not mentioned in the plan. There was some discussion late last year in this Chamber about the need to ensure that Cobh is serviced by proper infrastructure. It is disappointing that there is no mention of the town in the significant list of inter-urban routes, which includes towns and cities such as Gorey, Cork and Limerick. The people of Cobh deserve an adequate access point to their town. Storm Ophelia demonstrated the need for such a route. I hope that, in the context of the iterative process under way in regard to the national development plan, the Minister of State, Deputy English, who is present, could mention that need because it is inadvisable for Cobh to be left out of the plan, given that it has an approximate population of 13,000 and that in the event of a natural phenomenon such as Storm Ophelia, there is no guarantee of proper access for emergency vehicles to the town, which does not have secondary or tertiary medical facilities and is all but closed off from time to time. I ask that consideration be given to this issue.

There must be absolute transparency in terms of the process currently under way in respect of the Cork events centre. This has been the subject of much debate in the context of requests for further funding in circumstances where taxpayers' money is involved and it appears that the representatives for the county and city of Cork have been left out of the loop regarding information flows on what is happening on the project. A request for additional funding was made but the people of Cork demand to know its purpose. People were foursquare behind the project when it was announced by the previous Government but somewhere along the way the goalposts were shifted, a request for additional funding came in and nobody is any the wiser as to how that money will be spent locally.

I am disappointed that the plan does not seem to address the additionality of capital services or spending for mental health services. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath, a member of the Independent Alliance, has waxed lyrical about the increases in current expenditure but Members on the front line who represent people who need access to services and a continuum of care from childhood to adulthood and into their senior years do not see evidence in the plan of moneys becoming available for capital expenditure on necessary mental health services, such as housing and other ancillary services. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy English, to be cognisant of that and to raise it as an issue. There is wording in the plan in that regard-----

See this speech in context