Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle and his office for affording me this opportunity and the Minister for attending to reply to this important issue. It is 20 years since the M4 opened. It was a major boost to traffic at the time and has served its purpose well. With the passage of time, however, we have come to understand that its capacity is no longer capable of dealing with the volume of traffic on it. Three or four times per week, and sometimes every second morning, we hear without fail of an incident on the M4 between junctions 7 and 5. In some cases, this involves a minor accident. In others, it is a serious accident. In every case, it leads to considerable delays for morning commuter traffic. It happened as recently as yesterday morning, when a heavy vehicle had a contretempswith a van. The van lost out and ended high up on the embankment among the trees. Traffic was held up by at least an hour at a crucial time in the morning. Drivers cannot turn around on a motorway. It is not like a minor road.

I have referred to this situation before and the Minister is aware of it, but it is now vital that, at the earliest possible date, provision be made to upgrade the section of the motorway where it merges with the regional road, which was backed up yesterday almost all the way to Kilcock on one side and Lucan on the other. It is imperative that steps be taken to upgrade the road in accordance with what would normally be expected in such a situation. Doing so is not only important to morning commuters, but also to those in the transport sector, for example, Bus Éireann and Bus Átha Cliath, who travel on that road at every time. They are all waiting anxiously for an intervention to be made, and I am looking forward to the earliest possible intervention.

I will make another suggestion that would probably do no harm. That section of road could do with a police motorcyclist on a regular basis to monitor traffic. Something that we have all seen, including the Ceann Comhairle, is traffic moving from one lane to another and creating a serious opportunity for an accident to happen. Sometimes, vehicles move without signalling. Ramps at both ends of the interchanges are overloaded with traffic and need to be extended to ensure that vehicles merging with fast-moving traffic have an opportunity to pick up sufficient speed without causing an accident and vehicles heading onto the ramp can do so by moving from the motorway's high-speed lane into the slow lane earlier.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this important matter. As Minister, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in respect of the national roads programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015, the planning, design and improvement of individual roads is a matter for the relevant road authority in respect of local and regional roads and for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned, in respect of national roads.

Within the overall context of Project Ireland 2040, the national development plan has been developed by the Government to underpin the successful implementation of the new national planning framework. This provides the strategic and financial framework for the TII's national roads programme for the period 2018 to 2027. In the ten years covered by the plan, more than €11 billion will be invested in the road network.

The national development plan identifies two categories of national road improvement project. The first covers projects to advance to construction, subject to the satisfactory outcome of the project appraisal and development consent approval processes. The second relates to projects at pre-appraisal and early planning stage that are being assessed with a view to developing a pipeline of suitable projects for development.

Overall, the TII considers that, taking steady-state and public private partnership, PPP, commitments into account, the indicative national development plan budget would allow for the projects in the first category to be progressed and a pipeline of projects to be taken through early planning, but it would not be possible to take all of the pipeline projects through the development consent process or to construction stage within the timeframe of the plan. Advancing projects in the second pipeline category will, therefore, be subject to prioritisation within the overall national road programme and funding.

The proposed M4 Maynooth to Leixlip project is included among a number of major national road schemes that were identified for appraisal and falls into the pipeline category. The overall aim of the scheme is to aid in the delivery of Project Ireland 2040 by enhancing connectivity between Dublin Port and the west, in particular Sligo and Athlone. The extent of the section of the M4 corridor under consideration includes the mainline carriageway between junction 7, Maynooth, and junction 5, Leixlip, and the associated mainline junctions. The proposed alignment is 10 km in length, with the majority of the route in Kildare County Council's area and approximately 1.5 km traversing South Dublin County Council's area.

The benefits of the proposed project would include improved journey time reliability; improved connectivity between the west and north west to Dublin Port; enhanced linkages between Dublin and the west, in particular Sligo and Athlone; catering for future travel demands; and improved safety.

As regards the current status, this project was subject to pre-appraisal to establish its compliance with the requirements of the public spending code and my Department's common appraisal framework and to identify whether it should be included in a portfolio of projects to be progressed to stages 1 to 4 of planning and design in accordance with the project management guidelines. The pre-appraisal plan submitted by Kildare national roads office to my Department was approved in January 2019. I understand that Kildare national roads office is now compiling the project management deliverables to submit to TII for approval in order to proceed with the appointment of consultants who will progress the planning and design phases one to four. It is expected that consultants will be appointed in May 2019.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Durkan might invite them in for a visit.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I would be delighted to do so. The Ceann Comhairle might rise to the occasion himself, as he has more than a passing interest - no pun intended. I thank the Minister for his reply. I am pleased that work is in progress but it must be accelerated to the greatest extent possible. We have spent the past number of years regretting the accidents that have occurred on the N7 and N9 and on the Sallins bypass although work on the latter is progressing well. We need to see the same kind of progress with this particular project. The sooner consultants are appointed and the work starts, the better. If it was yesterday, it would not be too soon.

Concern has been expressed by commercial and passenger transport operators about the costs to them of delays on the road network because of accidents that should not really happen, particularly when all of the traffic is moving in the same direction. There is a lack of capacity on the motorways and regional roads which are incapable of dealing with the volumes of traffic coming on stream. I am glad that there is every intention to proceed as quickly as possible. Many of us have been in touch with TII on the matter. I must emphasise that this project is urgent and the sooner it is fully operational, the better for all concerned. Lives will be saved if the project is completed in the shortest possible timeframe.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Durkan and accept his point about the speed with which this project should be completed. I know that capacity at junction 7, Maynooth is proving to be a challenge but we must await the outcome of the various stages of the project's planning and design before pre-empting the extent of any capacity constraints that may exist. The feasibility working cost is estimated to be in the order of €100 million. That relates to phases 1 and 2. I understand from TII that this cost is a very early indicative estimate and would not, as yet, include project specific aspects. It is expected that the proposed scheme will address capacity demands but the solutions to the issues and alternatives are still to be examined.

In line with the requirements of the public spending code and my Department's capital appraisal framework, two sets of approvals are required for projects, namely, approval of the business case and the cost-benefit analysis of the project and, separately, approval by An Bord Pleanála of an application for development. As the Deputy knows, the project is at an early stage and I would like to take this opportunity to stress that any timeframe for the successful and timely delivery of any project depends on obtaining the necessary consents at various critical stages, including at the route selection, detailed design and tender stages. The necessity to meet the requirements of the public spending code and planning consent from An Bord Pleanála along with an adequate capital budget are also critical to delivering the project.

I wish Deputy Durkan and the Ceann Comhairle well in their endeavours.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. He can consider the invitation already issued.