Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The motion is about recognising the importance of regional transport and for it to be financially backed. For years, I have been calling for the construction of the Mountmellick N80 bypass. This is important regional infrastructure. It has been promised for decades with little progress.

The feasibility study was completed last year. The Government needs to be ambitious about regional transport and it needs to be backed up with money. Mountmellick bypass is based on a busy route, the N80, connecting the midlands and the west to the port of Rosslare, which is even more significant now due to Brexit, since hauliers are using this route to get goods to Rosslare and directly to the Continent, understandably bypassing the British landbridge. The current situation is unacceptable and ignores the serious traffic issues on the ground in Mountmellick. Trucks are driven through the centre of the town. There is a T-junction in the middle of Mountmellick. Lorries have to cross over to the wrong side of the road, at the very far side, to get around this. This presents dangers. Despite all of this, the project is not included in the national development plan. I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister for Transport some time ago and was informed that the project is not even listed on the national roads programme 2018-2027. There is no mention of it in the national development plan. I ask the Minister to look at the N80 again. It is carrying a substantial amount of traffic, including from the Minister's county, to the west. Traffic coming from Mayo, Roscommon and other counties and going to Rosslare is travelling through the centre of Mountmellick. I ask the Minister to revisit that.

I also raise the need for bus shelters. I have been raising this with the National Transport Authority for years. If we are going to get people to use buses, we have to provide bus shelters. Borris-in-Ossory, Mountrath and Castletown on the R445 need bus shelters. Ballylynan, Newtown and Crettyard on the N77 need bus shelters. If we expect people to use the bus, that is what we have to do. People catching the bus in those localities are getting soaked on a wet day, or on a wet morning going to work, to a hospital appointment or to anything else. Bus shelters are fundamental infrastructure. I ask the Minister to take this up with the NTA. Why is it so difficult to put these in place? In the neighbouring jurisdiction, just up the road, there are bus shelters all over the place, even for school transport. We need to give that role to local authorities and let the local authorities provide them. They will fix it and provide shelters. The NTA is not the right body. If you have to write to somebody in Dublin about a bus shelter at Crettyard, the game is lost. That needs to be done at local council level. I appeal to the Minister to devolve that power in his time in office.

See this speech in context