Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There will be a general election. The Minister's certainty that the proposal will go ahead would be one thing if he knew he was going to be in government for the next five years but policy changes are coming for our national road network and that is a different thing altogether. Ardee cannot afford to take that risk. It cannot afford to wait because it has waited for 20 years.

The Minister has provided the money. TII is saying that no one wants to delay this project but it does want to delay it despite having stated that the design is safe and compliant. The money is there and there is absolutely no reason for this project not to proceed. The Minister has much experience in this House and the Seanad and he knows damn well what is going on here. Somebody has an eye on this €34 million and intends to take it from Ardee and put it elsewhere. The people of Ardee will not allow that to happen and the Minister must intervene to ensure that it does not.

An economic and social case can be made for the project. Is the Minister telling me that strategic investment priorities decided by him and the Government can be overturned without reference to him, without his even getting a note or knowing about it? Is that what is going on? That is not a version of the Minister that I like or that the people expect.

TII made reference to sporting clubs as part of its decision to review the scheme and that is unfair and unacceptable. It undermines the support those clubs have given to the bypass. I have already identified the issues about pedestrians and the very small number of them that we are talking about.

Notwithstanding those concerns, there is an existing road network adjoining the proposed motorway. Louth County Council should improve and widen those roads, and improve the access to them, if those things are issues. If the Minister and TII decide to delay this project, it will mean that this project, which now costs €34 million, will probably cost in the region of €40 million or more in the future, if it is to be built at all. Spending €2 million or €3 million now to improve the road network around the proposed bypass would meet the requirements.

I call on the people who have objected and have made their cases to TII to withdraw those objections and decide to allow construction of the road to go ahead. I will certainly commit, as a local politician, to assist in organising for money to be spent on the adjoining roads.

If in the future other things can happen, they will happen then. However, if it does not go ahead now it will never happen. There are people at work in this House who will make sure that it will not. That would be appalling and a disgrace. Ardee must come first. The money is there.

The Minister is the key person in this. I am seeking a meeting with him through his private office to discuss other issues which arise. I ask him to stand up and be the Minister we want him to be. He provided the funds, he put it on top of his press release. He must not let it go to the bottom of the pile.

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