Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is still in the NDP. As we know, that means nothing. In the 1940s, the NDP involved draining the Shannon and we still have not done that. A figure of €400,000 is derisory. It would not cut the grass verges on the N17 as it is at the moment. The fact is that I have in writing in front of me one chief executive in Sligo County Council communicating with his counterpart in Mayo and outlining that the Minister said there would be no funding available for the scheme for many years.

The people of the western seaboard are a little bit sick of the fact that it was the chosen location for the launch of Project Ireland 2040, as it was. Galway and Mayo are regularly chosen for other launches. It was good enough for Biden to come to Ballina, Knock or wherever else.

I was in the room for part of the programme for Government. In effect, Minister, Deputy Ryan, is dragging Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael around this House in line with his chosen and preferred version of what he might have liked the programme for Government to be. Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Limerick and various other areas in this House represented by those of all parties and none are apoplectic about the Minister. This is not personal, but when it comes to policies agreed by the Government he is running around like a headless chicken, dreaming about what he would like to have seen rather than what the Government agreed. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people in the western seaboard need this road from a safety point of view. I have also outlined why it makes economic sense to at least invest in some sort of counterbalance to what is increasingly an eastern conurbation that goes beyond congestion.

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