Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister's remarks about Castlemore Cross. It is known as one of the more dangerous sections of the road so it is good that there is a plan to progress matters there. However, many other sections of the road must be addressed. The low cost safety schemes, as the name suggests, are smallscale, but bigger solutions are required in the different areas I identified for the Minister. One example is the traffic queues on the Ballincollig bypass off ramp. Dealing with that will require a much bigger scale job and largescale funding. If there is to be an extra lane or if works are to be carried out the Minister needs to highlight that to TII.

Stage Cross on the western end will also be much more expensive than the smallscale works but it would offer far more safety on the road. The TII should examine that. Perhaps the Minister could raise with TII the possibility of building a roundabout there. The land is already owned by the county council. A large fleet of traffic travels through there from west Cork as it is the main access route for west Cork. It is very difficult and dangerous at that point. The Kilconly junction immediately adjacent to it has been highlighted repeatedly to TII. It could offer the opportunity of a solution. There must be an overall examination of the section of road between Ballincollig and Macroom by the TII to see the issues that could be dealt with. Perhaps TII could conduct a complete review of the road to make it safer and report back on that. I would appreciate if the Minister would raise that with TII and impress on the organisation the large number of injuries, accidents and, unfortunately, fatalities that have occurred on the road and ask it to address that.

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