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

I assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to improving transport infrastructure throughout the country, but most especially in the northern and western region. That commitment is evidenced by actual delivery of projects on the ground.

The index referred to by the Deputy measures a much wider range of indicators than just infrastructure and, on the basis of the complete index, the region is actually ranked higher. I also note that the road, rail and aviation elements of the index are all based off data collected in 2018 and 2019, which obviously predates this Government.

There has been a significant programme of road improvements across the region since 2020. Since 2021, four significant schemes have opened to the public. These are the N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin road, the N5 Westport to Turlough road, the N59 Moycullen bypass and the final phase of the N56 Dungloe to Glenties road. In addition to those schemes, construction is under way on the N5 Ballaghadereen to Scramoge road, while the Donegal TEN-T road scheme has reached the preliminary business case stage. I met with some councillors from the region last week to confirm our commitment to these projects.

There is a wide range of other schemes across the region at earlier stages of planning and design. I also note that the road accessibility metric used in the index predates the roll-out of Connecting Ireland, which is supporting new and enhanced public bus services on the road network across the region.

On rail, recent years have seen continued investment in the existing rail network in the region, as well as timetable improvements introduced for the region in the years since the data was collected for the index, including most recently in the new timetable introduced in December. More significantly, this Government launched the first ever all-island strategic rail review, which we just discussed. That has proposals for better rail connectivity in the region. I look forward to bringing the review to the Government shortly.

On aviation, my Department's Regional Airports Programme 2021 to 2025 provides direct capital investment and operational supports to Donegal and Ireland West airports, and public service obligation, PSO, air services between Donegal and Dublin. Under the regional airports programme, since 201, almost €9.44 million has gone to Donegal Airport and more than €39.42 million to Ireland West Airport.

These are only some of the various projects. I believe our national planning framework is correct. We need better balanced regional development, in particular in the north and west.

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