Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We will not be opposing the Deputy's motion tonight. I want to make clear the Government's support for the A5 upgrade which is a very important road in terms of road safety. I am very aware of the campaign in that regard. It is also a very significant road in that it connects Derry and Letterkenny better to Dublin and other parts of Ireland as part of the national road network. We are very much in favour of the project. The last agreement on this was actually made by Deputy Brendan Howlin, Sammy Wilson, Danny Kennedy and me back in 2011 or 2012. We agreed a figure to fund it. I think €80 million was to be our contribution. That was a reduction on our previous contribution because of the financial position we were in at the time. We are now in a much better financial position and we will be happy to have a conversation about increasing our contribution. Ideally, we would like to know that the road is through planning and how much it is going to cost before we have that discussion.

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