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

On 30 July 2009, the former Minister, Mr. Noel Dempsey, travelled from Cork to Midleton to reopen the rail link to Midleton. There had been a big campaign for a number of years and it was a huge success. I recently met with an official of Íarnród Éireann and he told me it is planned to electrify the system from Mallow to Midleton to Cobh and it is planned eventually to have services every 15 minutes. That is very good. Part of the issue that happened there was that a lot of land had to be zoned in the area to provide a population base to make it sustainable. That has been done.

The N25, which is very close to this, is not fit for purpose and recently the Minister pulled a project to upgrade it.

That puts 2,500 houses at risk, does not help to make what is a very dangerous road safer and further locks in a 64 ha Industrial Development Agency, IDA, site because the road is not upgraded. Perhaps the Minister of State could give us some clarity on that at some stage. It is hugely important.

In my area there is the N25 Castlemartyr bypass. My colleague, Deputy Shanahan, has just mentioned the N25 as well. There are massive tailbacks on that road at this time of the year, every day and every evening, leading to Castlemartyr. Anyone who listens to the radio reports will hear about that. That needs to be progressed. I know there are now plans to upgrade the road from Midleton all the way to Youghal, but we have tailbacks of cars sitting there spouting diesel and petrol fumes for hours on end, causing frustration and delays and costing money. That needs to change.

Has anyone ever considered a school town bus service? Every morning I notice massive congestion around schools where people drop their children to the door of the school if they can or as close as possible. There are one or two children in each car. That causes congestion, with people rushing and under stress. A local school bus service, in the larger towns in particular, could alleviate a lot of that problem.

They are just some of the issues I wanted to raise.

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