David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. TII has written to me to tell me, "Due to limited funding available ... and the many competing demands for that funding, we are unable to provide a grant allocation to enable the project to advance in the current year", and further details on the grant allocation process can be found in the road allocation grants, which I have looked at. This came out of the blue at the end of the year, that funding was not available. The local authority expected the funding to be made available. That did not happen.

I stress the urgency of the safety aspects of this road. If you travel on this road some evenings and some mornings, which are extremely busy, you take your life in your hands. There are cars travelling at 100 km/h bumper to bumper and there are other cars trying to get in and they cannot. The slip roads are too short. There are median junctions where people are trying to cross and there are people trying to come out of their houses onto this road. It is very dangerous.

There is no short-term solution here but I am very concerned that this is now being put on the long finger. It is said we may be considered for funding next year. That is not good enough. On top of that, we also have a site sitting there for 12 years, with which IDA Ireland states it cannot do anything, and we have thousands of houses at risk, with TII itself objecting to the housing going ahead. One half of the Administration does not seem to be talking to the other. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is promoting housing and giving local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, funding to the tune of €4.5 million, and people put in planning applications in good faith thinking this road project will happen to enable them to get onto the roadway. We also have a railway at the other end, which is very welcome. There will be a great deal of money put into it to electrify it, which is very welcome, and we have cycleways, which also might be at risk because of this.

I ask the Minister, if he is listening out there somewhere, to have another look at this and to let the project advance to the next stage. It does not cost that much to allow it to go to the next stage, but to delay it now and to stop it creates a concern, and the local authority is concerned as well, that this might be stopped indefinitely with no progress in sight. I thank the Minister of State for listening to me.

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