Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue of the junction at Ballymaquirke. I note that the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, is taking this Topical Issue. He might know the area reasonably well because it is on the Mallow to Killarney road. This is a dangerous junction. It intersects Kanturk and Banteer, and on to Cork and Nad. The junction has been classified at Cork County Council level as one of the most dangerous junctions in Cork and indeed in Munster. A huge body of work has been done locally to try to get a solution. Councillor Bernard Moynihan organised the petition locally. Some 3,000 people signed the petition because of the urgent need for work to be done on the junction. As I understand it, a design has been approved. An Bord Pleanála has given its approval. It went in as one of the major projects directly to An Bord Pleanála and planning has been given. It is my understanding that Cork County Council has submitted an application to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, to get funding for this work.

I cannot over-emphasise the importance of this junction to the people of Duhallow and north Cork in particular; to the people who are crossing that junction on a daily basis in their commute from the western and northern end of Duhallow, from Kanturk, Newmarket, Rockchapel and Cork; to those who are coming from western Duhallow from the Kerry bounds; and to those coming from Kerry who are crossing the junction and going on to Mallow, Banteer and onwards to Cork. Local people use that junction on a daily basis, whether they are going in or out of Kanturk or whatever they are doing, as are people from the farming community and elsewhere.

This junction has been the subject of many discussions at local authority level and indeed here in Leinster House. It is high time that we ensured that funding is made available for it. There are plans that have been approved and it has gone through the various steps in planning, land acquisition and all the other necessary statutory processes that have been earmarked. A huge body of work has been done by the senior officials in Cork County Council. They liaise with the Department at all stages, as well as with Transport Infrastructure Ireland on advancing this work. Transport Infrastructure Ireland gave funding in terms of submitting to An Bord Pleanála.

Here we are with a shovel-ready project. We cannot wait any longer to get this project done because it will save people’s lives. It will save people who are crossing the junction and who are putting their lives at peril on a daily basis. Whatever side one comes from into the junction, it has stood out as a dangerous junction. It has been heralded as that and it has been acknowledged as that.

I ask the Minister of State to outline the next steps. Does Transport Infrastructure Ireland have the necessary funding available so that work can go ahead at Ballymaquirke as soon as is humanly possible? We have all the building blocks in place.

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