Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Minister for Transport what progress will be made towards the much-needed northern distributor road and Cork city northern transport project in 2026, given that only €400,000 was provided in funding under national road funding allocation in 2026, and whether this will be prioritised given that there is a huge growth in population in Cork. This is a difficult issue. We have the biggest taxpayer in the country situated in Hollyhill, Cork. Apple computers employs over 6,000 people. It started off 45 years ago with 60 people. The same road infrastructure is there now as 45 years ago. We are talking about a distributor road on the northern side of Cork city. If you are coming in from Limerick through Mallow to go to the western side of Cork city you now have a huge problem getting there. You are either coming down through the city on roads that were constructed for a far smaller volume of traffic or you have to come through Blarney, Cloghroe and back through Ballincollig. When are we going to prioritise this? We have been able to fast-track the Adare bypass. This is essential for Cork city. We are putting in funding for the Ringaskiddy bypass, which is essential. Again, we are waiting 14 years for funding for that. This one is crucial because we have a lot of people working there who have to come through that part of the city to get to their place of work because we have a lot of people living in Mallow and north of the city. Yet, we are putting in €400,000 in 2026. I am gobsmacked that what is regarded as a priority project is being put on the back burner again. This request was put in over 20 years ago, and 20 years later we still have nothing delivered.

I do not believe this is the way we should be treating major employers in an area where we have difficulties with workers accessing their places of employment. We are doing nothing to assist them. We are doing nothing to assist the people who have to go outside the city to get housing and who are working in other parts of the city and have to come through this traffic chaos. When exactly will we give this project priority? I am talking about the northern distributor road. The route as it has been identified stretches from Carrigrohane Straight up the north side of Cork city, north of Apple computers onto the Cork-Mallow road and on to Glanmire. We seem to have parked it now that the route is identified. I believe we need to give priority to it. We need to fast-track it. The employer I am talking about employs 6,000 people. We collected €14 billion in tax in one year alone. Last year we collected another €4 billion. The three biggest taxpayers in corporate tax are paying 46% of corporate tax. Two of them are in Cork - Eli Lilly and Apple. We are telling them it is not our problem to put in roads for them. That is their problem. I do not think that is good enough. It is about time we got our act together on this and gave it the priority it deserves and identify the funding to progress this project at the earliest possible date.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of the Minister for Transport, I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to address this issue in the House. The proposal for the Cork northern distributor road, NDR, is set out in the Cork metropolitan area transport strategy 2040, CMATS, which was developed by the NTA in collaboration with Cork City Council, Cork County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland. During the preparation, the opportunity to thread together several upgrades of existing roads was identified. This would create a coherent orbital route on the north side of Cork city. This route, which was termed the northern distributor road, was considered to address several of the access issues that currently exist on the northside of the city and was included in the final CMATS document. As the Deputy is aware, the Department of Transport published its NDP review sectoral plan in November 2025. As is noted in the sectoral plan, procurement on the NDR is expected to occur over 2028 and 2029, with a view to construction commencing thereafter. The NTA has received all required documents and approved Cork City Council to proceed with the tender for consulting services for phase 3, the preliminary design, and phase 4, the statutory process, for the Cork northern distributor road project. Cork City Council published the consultants tender in December 2025 and has since received interest from 18 consultancy firms on the NTA’s framework. Cork City Council briefed councillors on this update in mid-December. Tender submissions are due by 13 March this year, and Cork City Council plans to appoint a consultant for phases 3 and 4 in May. Phases 3 and 4 are expected to take approximately 36 months to complete, which should then allow for the lodgement of a planning application for the project. Cork City Council plans to undertake another round of non-statutory public consultation after appointing a consultant, so draft designs are likely to be available to the public in quarter 3 of 2027. I look forward to seeing this project progress over the coming years and I thank the Deputy again for raising this matter and giving me an opportunity to update the House.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I am concerned that the Minister of State is saying 36 months. That is three years. We have the biggest taxpayer in the country in this part of the city. We are saying sorry that they are waiting 45 years, but they will now have to wait between five and eight years more before we do anything for them. It is not good enough to wait three years. We fast-tracked the Adare bypass because we have a lot of people flying in for four weeks, and after those four weeks they will all be gone. Apple is there 45 years. The people of Cork are there all of the time. They are not there for just four weeks out of 20 years. I do not understand why it takes three years to progress a project because that is what we are now talking about. This is not good enough where there is substantial money being earned by the State in respect of a company providing employment to 6,000 people.

That is the number employed there. This is together with all the other people who are employed in Ballincollig, on the western side of the city, or the people employed in south Cork who have to travel through the city to get to their place of employment. We are now saying it is going to be another three or four years before we even go to the stage of inviting tenders for construction, and it may very well be six years. In view of the urgency of the matter and the fact that this project was parked for over ten years, can we not now give it priority? Can we not give priority to the consultation, the drafting of the plans and to advertising to bring in the contractors to build? It is extremely important for the city and for the many people who are working in the city and on its outskirts. I thank the Minister of State.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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It is not in my gift to say that we can accelerate the timeframe for the delivery of-----

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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You did it for Adare for the sake of four weeks. Everything was done.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I will acknowledge that the Deputy makes a very valid case to ensure we have the right infrastructure in place to serve major companies that are contributing significantly in terms of corporation tax to our country and employment for Cork and across different regions in Ireland. I have been given a document this evening to outline on behalf of the Minister for Transport the current timelines in place. The Deputy will be aware that the Government and the Minister, Deputy Chambers, in the Department of public expenditure and reform, have published a document on accelerating the implementation of critical pieces of infrastructure. I honestly do not know if that will have an impact on the delivery of what the Deputy rightly identified as a critical infrastructure in relation to this northern distributor road. There was an acknowledgement on behalf of the Government that it was taking too long for infrastructural projects to be rolled out. As a consequence of that, a group was formed, an action plan has been published and those actions are there to be implemented to ensure we reduce the time it takes to put in critical infrastructure. I honestly do not know whether that will improve the situation the Deputy spoke about. I hope it will. I will bring back the points the Deputy has raised here to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. I am sure the Deputy will use the opportunity within his own parliamentary party, which is a member of this Government, to also articulate the points made here this evening.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State.