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

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter. I am looking for an update on the proposed works at Ballymaquirk junction, which is on the N72 Mallow-Killarney road and intersects with the Kanturk-Banteer road. It is a very dangerous junction. It is one of the most important junctions in my constituency, in the heart of the Duhallow region. Most people and families from that region travel through this junction, many of them several times a day, getting to work or going to Banteer, Nad and Cork city.

There were some near misses this year. This is an issue that Bernard Moynihan has been raising continually at Cork County Council level. It is of vital importance that we get an update on it and that the Department and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, take seriously the proposals that are being put by Cork County Council. I understand some remedial works are being done in the short term, but there are issues over the Part 8 planning application to acquire the lands around the junction for the proposal from Cork County Council to put in a roundabout. This is a major piece of infrastructure at the junction and it will take a considerable time, but the Department, TII and Cork County Council must be as one on this project.

Some 4,000 people signed a petition to have work done here. Earlier in the summer, before the grass was cut, the junction was dangerous and it remains so. People are crossing that road, travelling west and east. There is a main line that runs from Kanturk to Newmarket and Rockchapel. People are travelling daily from as far west as Abbeyfeale, through Rockchapel, Newmarket, Kanturk and into Cork city. There is a throughput of people at this junction.

The problems with the junction were made obvious when there was a football match in Kanturk on a workday evening. The amount of traffic coming through the town from the Banteer and Ballymaquirk junction left it chock-a-block. I cannot emphasise enough to the Minister the importance of funding this project and ensuring a roundabout is put there as soon as possible and that all the necessary work, and paperwork in the first instance is moved through the Department and TII as soon as possible because we must ensure the safety of people at this junction.

The most recent incident there involved trucks. The volume of traffic passing through that junction is quite alarming. It is a feed road right into Duhallow, so the entire region will be using it, including western and northern Duhallow, Kanturk and Dromtarriff. I raised this issue in a debate previously, on 18 December, and that shows how serious I am. I want an update on what the Department and TII are doing. How quickly can we get proper remedial works done and a roundabout placed at Ballymaquirk to ensure the safety of all those who are using the road?

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