Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House to deal with this matter, which concerns a forgotten road in the Dún Laoghaire ward, Pottery Road. It is in the Dún Laoghaire development plan to redesign and reconstruct that road and there has been a part 8 procedure and a recent public consultation. It has been decided at local level in the council to proceed with the improvement scheme for that road. It is important in the sense that there is a level of residential density and development in the area with new apartment blocks. There is an industrial estate and the Pfizer plant expanded in the past number of years. There are such estates as McIntosh Park and, most recently, the development of a Lidl supermarket. Yet the road has all the features of a country road in the middle of the city. The residential and commercial development generates an unsustainable level of traffic and this raises some important safety issues. The road is frequently subject to flooding and was most recently featured as having widespread flooding.

I ask that the Minister include this in the programme for local and regional roads. The Minister recently announced the programme for 2009. The allocation for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was the second lowest after Carlow County Council, but that is a general observation. My specific point is that there should be provision for this scheme given its importance to the economic vitality of the area, the efficiency of the industrial and commercial operations in the vicinity of this road and adjoining it and the safety of through traffic and the residents in the area. I would be grateful if the Minister could take on board these observations and give some indication of the status of the road in the Department's assessment and when it may be included in the Department's roads programme. Since it has not got into this programme I hope it would feature in the programme for 2010. Perhaps the Minister could clarify this.