Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, is not here. Anyway, the big message is that the Minister needs to get more proactive in the Department with regard to infrastructure development. This morning, we learned of the requirement for a second runway at Dublin Airport to be fast-tracked and the delays pending in that regard. If Brexit comes about, obviously we will have fewer people flying into London and maybe more into Dublin. Are we ready for that? I do not think we are.

I will stick to the South in my deliberations.

The applications made to Europe under the TEN-T programme were deficient. Let us consider some of the applications. Major emphasis was put on the upgrade of Rosslare, which is a project badly needed. We know what will happen if the land bridge through Britain is closed down to us or made too restrictive for hauliers and the movement of goods.

As recently as 12 months ago, the Government acknowledged that no report was in hand with regard to exactly what goods were going via the land bridge through Britain. Even the Taoiseach acknowledged that the Government had no statistics in place. The Government has put them in place since then, in fairness, but that was one year after Brexit was passed by the British people. Whether Brexit comes or otherwise we do not know, but we should have contingency plans in place. We do not know what the Government has in place. This is causing fear in people currently. One person gave me an example only last week. During the warm weather there were upwards of 35 tankers parked outside Bulmers in Clonmel. The question was whether those 35 tankers would be held up at the port if Brexit comes about. There are implications for customs tariffs and so on down the road.

We need infrastructure to be upgraded. I remember when I first joined my local authority, Cork County Council, in 1997 or 1998. I remember the Southern Regional Assembly. One of the major priorities was the trans-European transport network, which involved a motorway from Cork, via Waterford, to Rosslare and up the east coast through Dublin into Belfast.

I have referred to the N25. There are no major proposals in the Government development plan for the N25 to be upgraded. This is concerning because considerable emphasis will be put on the adjoining ports for the delivery of goods. What is the shortest direction to mainland Europe? Will we have to get bigger ferries? We hear nothing about this.

It took the Minister six months or more to acknowledge the need for the M20 for economic development from Cork, Limerick, Galway and all the way up as far as Derry via Donegal. I wish to focus on the section from Cork to Limerick. I approached the Department 12 months or more before the Department acknowledged that the route had to be direct from Cork to Limerick with no roundabout route. There was talk about going through Clare and joining the proposed motorway from Limerick to Waterford. That made no economic sense and would have affected the people of the west considerably, including those in Kerry and west Limerick.

We acknowledge infrastructure has costs. However, the development of infrastructure has economic benefits in the long run. The Minister of State will know from her area in Meath that there must be development in order to see an economic return, whether on a local or national scale.

The concern is that not enough is being done in fast-tracking developments for infrastructure in this country. We seem to be far behind. I will offer one example. I attended an international transport conference recently. One issue that came up related to road safety and the reduction of road fatalities. The aim was to reduce road fatalities by 30%, although the figure may vary. Anyway, I asked whether it was fair to have Ireland in the same category as Sweden and Germany. Those countries have better infrastructure and road networks while we are lagging behind. The speakers acknowledged that it was difficult for us to catch up and meet the target of zero fatalities as quickly as the other countries.

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