Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. My issue is that, as the Minister of State is aware, there is a long-standing proposal to build the new Cork to Limerick motorway. It is back on the books and a new contract was signed recently to start the initial process of identifying the route and delivering a motorway between Cork and Limerick, or as people in Limerick would say, the Limerick to Cork route.

One of the problems I am facing on the north side of Cork city is that we have a major problem on both the western and eastern part of the north side of the city in that there is little road infrastructure available to take heavy traffic coming from the Mallow direction. On the eastern side, which is what my Commencement matter is about, there are heavy goods vehicles passing through residential areas in The Glen, Mayfield and down into Silversprings because that traffic is heading towards the Port of Cork. If we build a new Cork to Limerick motorway, it is important that we do not have a bottleneck when it comes to Blackpool. This traffic will still have to travel on to the Port of Cork.

I am seeking that in dealing with this Cork to Limerick road, we would also tie in at least part of the structure at this stage in the process, namely, the north-eastern relief road, which would connect the Cork to Limerick road to the Cork to Dublin road. There were proposals more than 15 years ago for what was called the north ring road, NRR. Unfortunately, on the north side of the city we do not have what is in Dublin, namely, the M50. We have old road infrastructure which is no longer adequate to deal with the traffic coming into the city, especially heavy goods vehicles which are travelling on to the Port of Cork, which is growing every year.

We are building a brand new port facility in Ringaskiddy, construction work is well under way and, therefore, it will be an attractive port for heavy goods to go to because we will be able to bring in bigger ships because the port will have deeper waters for ships to dock in. It is in that context that I am raising this issue and I wonder if the whole issue of the north ring relief road on the north-eastern side of the city can be tied in together with the Cork to Limerick road.