Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, because there is a Cabinet meeting taking place. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

I am quite familiar with the N72. As the Deputy knows, it extends from Killorglin and Killarney to east Kerry, through Rathmore, and then over to the Deputy's constituency. It is a road I often take if I am heading to the midlands, south Tipperary or Kilkenny. There are some very dangerous sections on the road and it is very busy. I acknowledge how busy it is at peak times, in particular. Certainly at this time of the year, it is a difficult road on which to travel. There is a lot of heavy traffic, including industrial and agricultural traffic.

TII has primary responsibility for the national and secondary road networks. The process is that the local authority would submit to TII and that the TII officials would then decide, under the various categories, which projects would receive funding. The projects are to be announced very early in the new year, as I understand it. The road to which the Deputy refers is a candidate for the funding.

I am sorry I do not have the information at hand but I undertake to make direct contact with those concerned and make a specific inquiry to obtain the exact details. I will try to get back to the Deputy as soon as possible, ideally tomorrow, to let him know what is happening. I will keep in touch with him during the process because I appreciate that this is of concern to him. A serious safety concern at any location is one we all want to see addressed.

With regard to the specific case, I understand it might come under the minor improvements scheme, which was born out of the road safety strategy. I understand that, to date, TII has funded 42 projects under the scheme and it is committed to a minimum of four per annum. I need to establish whether the location in question will be considered for 2019 but I will revert to the Deputy with the information.

As the economy and Exchequer returns continue to improve, it is critical that we catch up where we have not been able to address infrastructural deficits in recent years. Effectively, we have a decade of catching up regarding our road network. There are black spots around the country, such as the one referred to, that have not been addressed to date. As long as they are not addressed, there will be a risk to human life and of serious injury. We all want to see them addressed.

I will speak to the Deputy afterwards. I will try to obtain as much information as I can from the Department and TII and I will also try to give the Deputy a timeline as to when we are likely to have news on the scheme, the level of oversubscription to the scheme, and the heading it comes under within the TII ask. Every year there is a queue of very worthy projects from all over the country for which funding is sought but unfortunately there is simply not enough funding to meet the demand. TII has a statistical mechanism, based on collision data, for establishing the priority cases requiring funding. I will try to obtain as much information as I can for the Deputy.

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