James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and welcome his reply. I know from his time in the Department of housing that he has often faced down difficult challenges in respect of banging heads together to try to get results. It is not always achievable overnight; it takes years of hard work to make these things happen.

One of the positive decisions taken, for which I fought in the programme for Government submission I made, was on the need for multi-annual road funding to give certainty to contractors involved in capital projects. We had an outrageous system where, every six months, the process changed in some format. There was an issue around funding, weather had an impact, and there were public spending code issues. There are five or six administrative barriers that stop capital projects from progressing. I have great faith in the capacity of the Minister, who is new to his Department, to iron out the backlogs, but could he give me some insight into whether he intends to tackle the red tape associated with getting capital projects built in the area of road transportation?

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