Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh on Aire State. I am sure both of us would prefer to be back in the west in the sun, but we have to do our business in the House.

The issue I raise relates to the N59 between Galway and Clifden which passes through Moycullen and Oughterard, with which the Minister of State will be familiar. I appreciate work is being done on the road and acknowledge that planning for the Moycullen bypass has been advanced. However, I refer to the section of the road between Oughterard and Clifden which passes through Maam Cross in Connemara. What is the state of play in this regard? There have been two An Bord Pleanála hearings on the section between Oughterard and Maam Cross. The route chosen differs from the current one and there are concerns in the community that this might prove detrimental to the area. Environmental concerns have also been raised and we might be in bother at European level if we are not careful. During the An Bord Pleanála hearings the National Parks and Wildlife Service was not as vocal as it should have been.

Given that the Minister of State is from Westport, he will be well aware of the Delphi bridge disaster which happened a number of years ago. Mayo County Council got into a little bother because the European Union felt the habitats directive had not been fully complied with by the council and that insufficient account had been taken of the ecological issues raised by experts at the time. The Government got into trouble over the issue. There is a sense that we might take the same route on the section of the N59 between Oughterard and Maam Cross if the Government is not careful.

I would welcome the Minister of State's thoughts on that.

Issues are also being raised about the failures and the completeness of the environmental impact statement, EIS, and the Natura impact statement, NIS, as well as the fact part of this will be a DBO project. The nature of a DBO project means the plan is not available when the EIS is being prepared, so it is hard to gauge from an ecological point of view what the impact is going to be. This could lead to problems on an environmental level and, although this might have gone through the national planning process, it could be appealed to Europe. I want to know where we stand if that happens.

We all want to see the improvement of the road. It is very important for the people of south and north Connemara that we have good road routes to make the area accessible. Given the Minister of State's own involvement with the Wild Atlantic Way, he will be very aware we need to try to get people through the area in a proper manner but we also need to be very careful that we do it in the best way ecologically and in keeping with the needs and wants of local communities.