Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport I have responsibility for overall policy and funding of the national roads programme. The design, planning and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TIl, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. This also includes the improvement, upgrading and maintenance of the road network. Once I have put in place funding arrangements with TIl, it is a matter for TIl to distribute the funds to the various local authorities, including Roscommon County Council. Therefore, within its capital budget, the assessment and prioritisation of individual projects is a matter, in the first instance, for Tll. The National Development Plan 2018-2027 marks a significant step forward in terms of restoring national road funding to the levels needed to maintain the national road network in a steady-state condition and to allow for investment in road improvement schemes.

Each year, the safety section of TIl carries out a collision analysis of the entire national road network, in compliance with the EU Road Infrastructure Safety Management, RISM, Directive, to identify locations that have high concentrations of collisions. The 1 km section of the N4 referred to by the Deputies includes two junctions at Croghan and Cootehall. These junctions were identified through the HD15 safety programme and improvements were made by Roscommon County Council in late 2016-early 2017 in terms of signage and lining improvements, including arrows.

Further to meeting with a delegation from Roscommon in December 2018, Tll agreed to fund a scheme at this location, subject to a feasibility report from Roscommon County Council. TIl provided funding for this scheme in January 2019 on receipt of this feasibility report from Roscommon County Council. TIl understands that a design report and road safety audit has since been carried out on this scheme. It should be noted that Roscommon County Council is the road authority for this scheme and any further actions are currently with Roscommon County Council.

In addition to this, TIl is maintaining an ongoing rolling programme of minor works projects in the area. County Roscommon has four schemes included in this programme and these are: the N61 Coolteige scheme, main construction contract is completed, an archaeological testing contract is ongoing; the N60 at Oran, construction is ongoing; the N61 Ballymurray to Knockcroghery, technical advisers have been appointed by Roscommon County Council to progress the project through the planning and design phases; and the N61 Clashaganny to Tulsk, route options are currently being assessed.

I understand that local residents have begun a campaign to have the two junctions at Cootehall and Croghan addressed due to safety concerns and I fully understand their concerns. I would like to emphasise that I am committed to the maintenance and development of our road network across the country and I support any targeted investment that would improve road safety.

As I have previously outlined, TIl's safety section carries out assessments of the network under the HD15 programme which identifies accident clusters and under the HD17 programme which is also carried out under the European directive and which involves route assessments. I very much welcome TII and Roscommon County Council's continued efforts to address safety matters on the N4 route.

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