Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House, congratulate him on his new portfolio at the Department of Transport and wish him well in it. I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly on Transport 21 and ask the Minister of State about a number of issues. I understand a number of new services will come on stream on the train routes from Castlebar, Westport and Ballina to Dublin late this year or early next year. It has been pointed out to me that the new services will not go directly from Westport and Ballina to Dublin but will have to change in Athlone. If that is the case the people travelling from Ballina will have to change at Manulla and Athlone. While there will be extra services it will be a great inconvenience for the people from Ballina to have to change trains twice in a 150-mile route. Some of them may be in wheelchairs. Why should the people of Mayo have to change every time? Why should the people of Galway not change on some of the occasions? I suggest that some of those services from Westport via Athlone to Dublin be direct. At the very least we expect some of the services to be direct to Dublin.

In today's newspaper we saw that this jurisdiction and the North are agreeing on the height of container transport in the country and it is obvious the Dublin Port tunnel does not comply and is too low. We need an explanation on this. If super trucks come on stream in the South, does this mean they will go through the city of Dublin? At certain times and for much of the day the tunnel, which was built at huge cost, is empty. The toll should be reduced at certain times of the day which would take much of the traffic during the day. This should be examined. Is it the sole prerogative of the National Roads Authority? Who has the power to increase, decrease or remove a toll? If it is the Government's decision, does it have to compensate National Toll Roads? Who makes the decision? It should be examined. The tunnel was a huge cost to the taxpayer and should be used.

We should examine freight transport. We cannot have freight going straight to Dublin Port. A number of companies in my area, for example, Baxter Healthcare and Coca-Cola, would use freight transport going to Dublin Port if it were possible, but it is not.

No major roads project is under way in counties Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan and there will be none in the next couple of years. A number of major projects under Transport 21 have been pushed back. When will those projects begin? Examples include the completion of the N26 in Ballina, the N5 from Castlebar to Westport and on to Bohola. Some of those projects have been planned for now but have been pushed back. This is a huge area of the country where no major project is taking place with the exception of a piece of the Athlone to Ballinasloe road in south Roscommon. This part of our country gets slim pickings in health services as we saw in the Dáil last night and tonight and it is the same in road transport. While a considerable number of projects are in the pipeline for this area, they have all been put on the back burner. When does the Minister of State think the projects that have been pushed back will be brought forward? My county of Mayo has the highest number of national secondary miles in the country and there are no projects in the pipeline.