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

I thank the Minister, for her earlier response and that she keeps Cork to the forefront of her thoughts. That is marvellous.

The town centre first and town and village renewal schemes work to make towns nice places to visit. They are attractive and draw people in. People can socialise and enjoy themselves. They are pleasant places. However, has the Minister any interaction with the Department of Transport in order to get heavy trucks and congestion out of towns? I particularly think of Mallow. A northern relief road planned for Mallow. The local community did a huge amount of work there to try to build up the ambience in the town and make it a nice living space but the northern relief bypass, even though over €1 million has been spent on it, has been put on the long finger. Is there any interaction between the Department and the Department of Transport with respect to getting rid of congestion such as heavy trucks, which, I am sure the Minister will agree, would benefit everybody and benefit the overall Government policy with respect to town centres first?

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