Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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As the Minister knows, master plans for the north fringe of the Dublin City Council area and the adjoining south fringe of the Fingal County Council area were first drafted around 15 years ago by the planning departments of the two councils and a new urban district of 10,000 to 15,000 people and ancillary commercial development was planned, providing for a future population of 40,000 plus. Unfortunately the crash of 2008 brought much of the development to a halt and the discovery of high pyrite levels in foundation infills and insulation and other construction problems have greatly delayed the much-needed completion of the core of the north fringe.

The spine of the new city region is a main street or boulevard running from Clare Hall-Burnell on Malahide Road, Dublin 17 across Belmayne, Priory Hall and Clongriffin to Clongriffin town centre, which is alongside the planned town centre in the coast development of Fingal's south fringe. A number of key road improvements are a prerequisite for the development of this master plan for the north fringe-south fringe district. These include the Hole-in-the-Wall Road-Moyne Road improvement scheme now being addressed by Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council, the proposed Northern Parkway strongly linking the Dublin city and Fingal parts of this region and finally, and most importantly, the Malahide Road re-alignment or bypass at Clare Hall-Burnell which is a joint project of Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council.

The Malahide Road re-alignment was a key roads improvement objective in the 2005-11 Dublin city development plan, which I helped design. Dublin City Council road design and construction engineers and the north central area management teams held widespread consultation on this project, especially with Fingal colleagues, and produced detailed plans for the proposed re-alignment. Traffic on the very busy Malahide Road was to be diverted to the west at Darndale Belcamp and over a new bridge and across the N32, now known as the R139, through Belcamp College lands and then moving back eastwards to re-join the Malahide Road near the Moyne Road junction. In the Dublin city development plan 2011 to 2017 at section 5.1.4.8 under "Road Capacity Improvements" the construction of the Malahide Road re-alignment is named as a key objective. The re-alignment's importance is underlined in many reports since 2008 to the north central committee of Dublin City Council and to the North Fringe Forum, a residents' and stakeholders' group which meets quarterly to review progress on the north-south fringe.

At our recent north-fringe forum, which took place on Tuesday last, the north central area manager, Mr. Dave Dinnigan, highlighted efforts by Dublin City Council to encourage well planned development at a key site on the junction of the Malahide Road - R139 - and Clare Hall Avenue. This is the site of Clare Hall town centre and an earlier effort by the local authority to develop the centre was stymied by the withdrawal and collapse of Stanley builders. However, the critical public infrastructure necessary to create the environment of the new Clare Hall town centre is the urgent funding and construction of the Malahide Road bypass or realignment. The bypass will take the considerable north-south traffic out of the location and, with other measures to ease the east-west traffic flows, would permit a true urban retail and services centre to develop where the Tesco Clare Hall shopping centre and the Hilton hotel are the flagships of a commercial development at present.

The last detailed report we received from DCC engineers put a cost of €50 million on the project a couple of years ago, but as a key measure to enable the sustainable completion of the north fringe-south fringe region, capital expenditure on this realignment would be a valuable investment. Many thousands of new homes, services and businesses are needed in the region and, in addition to addressing our catastrophic housing crisis, this road investment would be a significant boost to the public infrastructure needed to complete the north-fringe urban region. I urge the Minister to ensure the National Transport Authority makes the project a priority for the 2016 capital programme.

I noted the Minister's recent announcements. Incidentally, I hope his recent reconsideration of metro north is not merely a general election ploy and he is sincere about this. As the Acting Chairman, Deputy Farrell, will be aware, it would be devastating for the north side if the Minister, who himself is one of our region's Deputies, dangles this carrot in front of us and then does not help to follow through on it. I hope that reconsideration is real. In the announcements, there are many important road improvements. I note the N11 New Ross bypass and the road connecting Sligo and Donegal - the north-west region - and I am a strong supporter of all those. However, for our region, and I think the Acting Chairman would support this 100%, we should do the Malahide Road realignment.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Broughan for raising this matter with me. As the Deputy would expect, I am familiar with the area to which he refers. There is a response that will be circulated to him but I will pick up on a few points in response.

Deputy Broughan will be aware of the overall position on road funding. From a height of almost €3 billion in 2008, this year the level of funding available to me for road construction or maintenance is €760 million, which is a decrease of almost two thirds. Alongside that, there is considerable pressure on the money I have available to fund a range of different projects. The Deputy referred to some of the national projects elsewhere for which there is a great need. He also touched on some of the speculation about metro north. I will not get into what the proposal will be because I must get Cabinet approval for it, but I assure the Deputy that whatever proposal goes forward with, I hope, Cabinet approval, it will be one we are confident we can make happen because I am aware of the number of times different plans have emerged, some of which have happened but many of which have not.

On the road project to which Deputy Broughan referred, the funding position of Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council and the other Dublin local authorities is that, in view of their implementation of the local property tax, each is now in a surplus position in terms of their overall finances and is in a position to self-fund services, including road expenditure. On the particular proposal Deputy Broughan made for the Malahide Road bypass near Clare Hall, to date my Department has not received a proposal from any of the local authorities for that road. That may be for different reasons in terms of examining the proposal or its cost, and the Deputy may well be aware of them, but I have not received a proposal for that road.

A capital plan will be published, I believe, next week. That will refer to some projects that will be progressed, but I anticipate that other projects could be deployed out of the funding that local authorities themselves will have available to them. At this time, neither I nor my Department has received a proposal for that road. Perhaps Deputy Broughan might be able to offer a perspective on that because I am aware, given that I know where he is referring to, that there is a need to look at the road infrastructure in that part of the north side of Dublin city.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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On that point, there were detailed plans in 2012 or early 2013. The Minister's predecessor would have received some outline requests for support because it is a project that encompasses two local authorities and it needs that kind of background support.

I have advocated for many years for a strategic development zone in the north fringe - the south fringe from a Fingal perspective - which would be a massive new city region. If we had an SDZ in the region, which we should have and which is something the Minister could take to Government, we would have key infrastructure such as roads, schools and services going in as occupants moved in. We have had a terrible time with the north fringe and south fringe, and the Acting Chairman can back me up in every word I say, because of the pyrite problem, which was an horrendous imposition on young families, men and women who had struggled to save and were paying mortgages. We also had insulation problems and all types of other problems.

There is the example of other countries. For example, when the north fringe was first mooted, some city councillors may well have visited Stockholm. Stockholm, like Dublin, has four local authorities and in the northern part, where they were building a new north fringe, they tried to put all the integrated services in together. That certainly included roads. It included taking major traffic out of the new centre, a place called Hammarby Sjöstad in north Stockholm. They also examined other EU capitals where there was major town development, but the roads were part of creating a new urban district.

Obviously, there will be significant changes in south Fingal and the north part of Dublin city. In particular, the county manager envisages Swords becoming a major regional centre. It is the fifth or sixth largest city in the country already - the fifth or sixth anyway. It is a major regional city. We hope to have major services in terms of education, health and so forth encompassing the population back to Dublin Bay North, which is mostly in the city area. A key part of progressing this is to look seriously at this road project.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Broughan.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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On a final point about metro north, when the former Rail Procurement Agency held substantial consultations in 2008, it had three corridors for the new metro north, or metro-heavy rail, one which would have gone through the western part of Dublin Bay North, coming up through Coolock from Drumcondra. Eventually, the RPA decided on the alignment that is being discussed in press statements and elsewhere in the context of the Minister's reconsideration of the project. People felt the north-west had to be brought into this and the result was the western part of Dublin Bay North was left out of the equation. We are fortunate to have the DART in Malahide and Portmarnock on the eastern side of our region. Therefore, we need some major public transport capital infrastructure as well and the Malahide bypass-----

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Broughan. His time has expired.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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I have one last line. I thank the Acting Chairman, who is very generous.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I am.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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On the last point, I want to bring the Malahide Road to the Minister's attention. I do not know what will happen when we have the general election in a few weeks or months time and who will be sitting behind the Minister's desk. If Deputy Donohoe is still there, in whatever circumstances, I hope he might remember the Malahide Road realignment and help our engineers in both counties to bring it to pass.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I heard the two different points the Deputy made. My priority is to find a way to significantly improve public transport access on the north side of our city in a way that will benefit many of the communities to which the Deputy referred. This means there are other initiatives that I, or any future transport Minister, will not be able to do for some time, given that it will require investment to put in place new public transport access for the north side of Dublin.

Regarding the Malahide Road, my Department has not received a proposal on it, although some costings or work may have been done a number of years ago. I will soon meet the two local authorities regarding other transport matters and I will raise it with them and see where the matter stands. I know that part of the city well and, while there is a need to improve our public transport access overall, I am familiar with the quality of some of the roads to which the Deputy referred. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.