Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this important matter. As Minister, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in respect of the national roads programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015, the planning, design and improvement of individual roads is a matter for the relevant road authority in respect of local and regional roads and for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned, in respect of national roads.

Within the overall context of Project Ireland 2040, the national development plan has been developed by the Government to underpin the successful implementation of the new national planning framework. This provides the strategic and financial framework for the TII's national roads programme for the period 2018 to 2027. In the ten years covered by the plan, more than €11 billion will be invested in the road network.

The national development plan identifies two categories of national road improvement project. The first covers projects to advance to construction, subject to the satisfactory outcome of the project appraisal and development consent approval processes. The second relates to projects at pre-appraisal and early planning stage that are being assessed with a view to developing a pipeline of suitable projects for development.

Overall, the TII considers that, taking steady-state and public private partnership, PPP, commitments into account, the indicative national development plan budget would allow for the projects in the first category to be progressed and a pipeline of projects to be taken through early planning, but it would not be possible to take all of the pipeline projects through the development consent process or to construction stage within the timeframe of the plan. Advancing projects in the second pipeline category will, therefore, be subject to prioritisation within the overall national road programme and funding.

The proposed M4 Maynooth to Leixlip project is included among a number of major national road schemes that were identified for appraisal and falls into the pipeline category. The overall aim of the scheme is to aid in the delivery of Project Ireland 2040 by enhancing connectivity between Dublin Port and the west, in particular Sligo and Athlone. The extent of the section of the M4 corridor under consideration includes the mainline carriageway between junction 7, Maynooth, and junction 5, Leixlip, and the associated mainline junctions. The proposed alignment is 10 km in length, with the majority of the route in Kildare County Council's area and approximately 1.5 km traversing South Dublin County Council's area.

The benefits of the proposed project would include improved journey time reliability; improved connectivity between the west and north west to Dublin Port; enhanced linkages between Dublin and the west, in particular Sligo and Athlone; catering for future travel demands; and improved safety.

As regards the current status, this project was subject to pre-appraisal to establish its compliance with the requirements of the public spending code and my Department's common appraisal framework and to identify whether it should be included in a portfolio of projects to be progressed to stages 1 to 4 of planning and design in accordance with the project management guidelines. The pre-appraisal plan submitted by Kildare national roads office to my Department was approved in January 2019. I understand that Kildare national roads office is now compiling the project management deliverables to submit to TII for approval in order to proceed with the appointment of consultants who will progress the planning and design phases one to four. It is expected that consultants will be appointed in May 2019.

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