Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to his political alma mater. Deputy Ross is one of our most distinguished alumni and we are delighted to have him here. I will follow the trend set by my distinguished colleague, Senator Richmond, and identify a few specific issues within the Minister's huge brief that I would like him to address.

While there is a parochial dimension to what I am going to mention, it is also a regional and national issue. I refer to the construction of the east-west link, that is, the roadway from Dundalk to Sligo. I am specifically concerned about the section that links Dundalk to Cavan town. The project was granted-aided up to 2014 for preliminary design work. The projected cost of the work is €150 million but the project was not included in the 2015 seven-year plan. The road is so important to the region. We have Carton Brothers in Shercock, a small village in Cavan, employing up to 700 people who would not be able to find alternative employment in the area. That company is an extremely important employer in the region. It moves a huge amount of freight and has lots of small growers and farmers associated with it. Abbott in Cootehill is another major employer and there are numerous small, indigenous employers in the area too. The only way to create jobs in the region in question is through indigenous employers but they cannot function with the current roadway situation. I appeal to the Minister to look at this project again in the light of better than expected revenue returns and so forth. The east-west link is a very necessary infrastructural project, particularly the Dundalk to Cavan section, as well as the remainder of the route to Sligo. The cost would be €150 million but it would be money well spent. I appeal to the Minister to look at that.

It is important to acknowledge progress. In that regard, I am happy that the Minister has increased the roads allocation for County Cavan by 8%. The allocation for Monaghan has also increased and that is very welcome. However, the Minister must take cognisance of the fact that there was a 50% reduction over the lean years and we now need to take advantage of the better years to incrementally restore the allocation because the roads and by-roads in the region have suffered.

There is a serious issue in Cavan at the moment which is delaying the approval of the roads grant in the county. The issue held up the most recent local authority meeting in Cavan and the roads programme has not yet been agreed because of it. It is a very interesting issue and I hope the Minister will address and resolve it. There are small laneways or what could be called tertiary roads in rural Ireland that veer off by-roads and go up to two or three houses. The people in those houses are taxpayers and citizens. They are socially compliant and very civic-minded people and are part of our population. They have similar rights to people who live in urban centres. Their rights cannot be lesser under the Constitution but they are being denied access to medical services, emergency services and their ability to farm is being compromised because their little laneways are broken down. Local democracy would suggest that local councillors should decide these matters but these people do not have enough local representatives in their area. In that context, I ask the Minister to consider ring-fencing a section of future road allocations to counties such as Cavan for those little laneways or tertiary roads adjacent to which real people with real families live. They need medical services, school buses and they need to be able to use farm machinery and so forth but the roads leading to their homes are not fit for purpose. I ask the Minister to look at that issue and would appreciate it if he could revert to me on it.

In the time remaining I wish to make reference to the very successful tourism sector. We have seen a 12% increase in tourism which is very good. However, I would like to see counties like Cavan and Monaghan marketed more as part of the overall tourism product. Our lakes, drumlins and topography are special and I ask the Minister to examine the degree to which we are marketing more remote locations. We tend to concentrate our marketing efforts on areas like the south west and the north west because they are well-known tourism areas but I am not sure we are doing enough for places such as Cavan and Monaghan and other regional centres.

Finally, I welcome the Minister's reference in his opening remarks to the need to focus on the diaspora. They are the people, whatever their level of linkage here, who are most likely to visit Ireland, to spend money when they are here and to make return visits. I congratulate the Minister on his report. I am afraid I will not be able to stay to hear his response to this debate because I have a prior commitment but I will look at the transcripts later. I would be very grateful if the Minister could address the specific issues I raised because there are lots of people who are interested in his response.