Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming. I am sure he has many pressing matters and I am aware that his time is valuable.

There is quite a bit of work being done on the N52 on which a four-mile stretch from Cloghan to Turin is being upgraded. It is the main Limerick to Dundalk road, but it has been totally closed for the past four months. The project is well ahead of schedule as there have been very few wet days, but in last week's edition of the local newspaper it was announced that the road would be closed for three months from 13 March to 12 June. During this period very little work will be done on Saturdays and none on Sundays. Including bank holidays, there will be 33 days in those three months on which no work will be done on site, even if there are no wet days which will cause delays in undertaking such work as moving soil. There could easily be ten such days. I implore the Minister to apply whatever pressure he can on the contractors to review the matter and extend their hours or work at weekends or on bank holidays. A lot of the work is not being done near houses and as such could be carried out at night. A lot of people will be discommoded and two businesses will be defunct while the work is ongoing, namely, Egan's Statoil station and the Cloghan Inn, a pub and restaurant. There is supposed to be local access, but this is a red herring as only two houses are facilitated. The best part of 100 are not facilitated and their occupiers have to travel five or six miles out of their way twice a day, even to make one journey. For those who make more than one trip, it adds an extra ten miles to their trip in each direction, a total of 20 miles.