Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Beidh sé deacair. Mar is eol don Leas-Cheann Comhairle, tá an obair seo ag teastáil go práinneach ar an mbóthar seo agus caithfidh mé cás láidir a dhéanamh.

The N59, as a coastal national secondary route, was included in Transport 21. The idea was that those parts of the country that were far away from national primary routes would have decent national secondary routes to service them. There are 113 km of N59 in Galway – 80 km from Galway to Clifden and 33 km from Clifden to Leenane. Priority was given to the section from Galway to Clifden. Ten years ago, planning permission was given to upgrade the N59 from Oughterard to Maam Cross, but there was a condition on the planning permission, namely, that method statements had to be agreed with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, which is part of the Minister of State's Department and not an independent agency. There was a stand-off over these method statements for years. Eventually, agreement was given to do a section of the road from Bunnakill to Maam Cross, which was completed in 2021.

Based on the success of that upgrade of the road – anyone who travels it knows how safe the new section of road is compared with the other section, which is highly dangerous – method statements were submitted to the Department in December 2021. The method statement in respect of the topographical survey was confirmed in July 2022.

However, further questions were raised regarding the ground investigations and archaeological investigation, and further information was provided in September 2022. Now we have a situation where these statements were provided to the Minister of State's Department in September of last year. We are now in the middle of April. There seems to be an inordinate delay in making decisions, and it is not as if we do not have a working model for how to ensure there is no leachate into the groundwater, the lakes or the rivers, irrespective of weather.

In the meantime, the land for the two-thirds of the road left to be done has been purchased and fenced by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII. As I have said, this road is very deficient and is a danger to people who have to travel it frequently, or to those who use it for going on their holidays, or whatever other purpose they have for going to that part of Connemara. It is also deficient for buses, and again we need more buses on that particular route. The question I am asking the Minister of State is quite simple. Can he outline, in detail, what work has been done since September 2022? Why is there such a delay in deciding a method statement, and when will a decision be made so that this road can proceed to development, either in two sections or one? I understand that the idea is to do the next section from Bunnakill a third of the way in to Oughterard, and the final third again.

The Minister of State might be very explicit in giving me this detailed information, because it looks as if the Department is, once again, sitting on development in Connemara.

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