Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome to the Gallery the people from the A5 campaign Enough is Enough.

As a Dub, I have been travelling to Derry for many decades. My journey on the A5 started many years ago when I made my first visit to Derry for the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign. In those days, we did not stay in hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation. The people of Derry opened their homes to us to enable us to stay up and support them in their fight for justice. That trip led me to meeting friends who I still visit every year, sometimes several times a year, using the A5, starting at Aughnacloy, passing through Omagh and Strabane, and going on to Derry. It is one of the most dangerous roads I have ever driven on. We are always very conscious of that when we drive on it.

Eight years ago, we discovered that my wife's birth mother, Mary Ellen, who sadly passed away this month, lived in Derry. This led us to travel to Derry on a biweekly basis. It brings me back. In the early days, we used to brag that the roads in the North were always far superior to those in the South. That certainly cannot be the case now in respect of the A5 or, indeed, the A1, which we also use regularly. They are both dangerous and need to be upgraded.

I recently listened to Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Doherty talk about the A5. They shared a statistic I was unaware of and my jaw dropped when I heard that 47 people have lost their lives on that road in recent years. The most tragic accident of all happened recently when three members of the same family lost their lives just outside Aughnacloy. Those are 47 families that have lost a loved one, brother, father, mother, sister, aunt, uncle or friend. Those lives cannot be replaced.

I welcome the continued commitment of the Irish Government and the Minister of State to the upgrade of this road. I urge that the changes in the cost as a result of delay are fully met. We know that the costs are not in any way near what was initially expected but that must not be a barrier to this development. Finally, I urge those people who are objecting to the project and who have held it up to work with the community to ensure this upgrade happens. No one should have any doubt but that lives have been lost and families devastated, and people have suffered life-changing injuries. There should also be no doubt but that this upgrade will save lives. I again thank those in the Gallery for coming down.

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