Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, to the House and thank him particularly for making himself available to participate in this debate on an updated progress report on the M20 Limerick to Cork motorway project. The Minister and I have been on a journey - pardon the pun - on the M20 since October and November 2016. The Minister agreed in November to my suggestion to give €1 million to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, to allow primary work to get under way on planning for the M20 in order to reactivate the project. I wish to put on record that this was a key moment because it put the M20 back on the agenda. Subsequently, in April 2017, I held very well-attended public meetings in Limerick at which great support and demand for the M20 and the reactivation of the project were expressed. Then, in October, it was included in the capital plan as a project costing up to €1 billion, making it the single biggest infrastructure project in Ireland. Some time has elapsed since the capital plan in October. My understanding is that design and planning consultants have been shortlisted and are shortly to be appointed. The Minister might confirm this. I very much welcome that the TII headquarters for the M20 will be located in Limerick, where there is a very good team.

The background to this is very simple. Project 2040 states that 75% of population growth will come from outside Dublin. Key to this is having a counterpole to Dublin along the western seaboard. The key elements of this are being able to link Limerick, Cork, Galway and Sligo by motorway. The M20 is in turn a key element of this between Cork and Limerick, cutting down the journey time from up to an hour and a half to perhaps 20 or 30 minutes in order that one could effectively travel from Cork to Limerick in under an hour and then from Limerick on to Galway in, say, under an hour, as is currently the case. This would mean a journey time of under two hours from Cork to Galway, passing through Limerick.

There is another element of which the Minister is probably aware and on which he might give us an update. We are looking for the Ryder Cup to come to Limerick, specifically to Adare Manor, in 2026. I understand discussions on this have taken place.The M20 will be key to that because Adare Manor runs alongside the N20. We want the spur to put the network in place.

The two other structural elements along the western corridor are the Shannon Foynes Port Company and Shannon Airport. In terms of the latter, we are hoping to be Brexit proofed. Ours is the only international airport that does not have a direct link to a European hub. What is the Minister's perspective on providing support so that we can advance the work on making Shannon a European hub? Currently, its only link is with Heathrow Airport in the UK.