Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I know the road like the back of my hand. I have been on it over the years, time in, time out. I absolutely understand the desire to see it upgraded and improved but we have to be upfront and honest with people. The prospects of getting funding for a completely new road are very slim and it is not in the existing NDP, unless that has changed. That does not mean we should not look at the safety issue, which is a real issue. I am aware it is a road that tends to see quite high speeds and it has quite a wide carriageway, with many entrances, side roads and properties exiting directly onto the road. We cannot ignore that issue. I had meeting with the TII board recently and because I know it so well, I used it as an example. I asked if we could look at a variety of different measures at particular junctions, put in speed cameras on the route, in particular average speed cameras, and look at other technical measures to help to improve safety.

It is a heavily trafficked road. There are huge volumes of traffic and many people commute from Macroom and other places onwards into Cork. I know exactly what is happening on the road but to offer the prospect of a completely new road would not be doing a service to those people because I do not see it coming in the next five to ten years.

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