David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Senator's passion and interest in this project, which is to be commended. However, the national development plan identifies two categories of national road improvement projects. The first covers projects to advance the construction subject to the satisfactory outcome of the project appraisal and development consent approval processes. The second relates to projects with pre-appraisal at early planning stage which are being assessed with a view to developing a pipeline of suitable projects for development. All this is subject to planning and funding. Overall TII considers that taking steady-state and public private partnership convention into account that indicative NDP budget would allow projects in the first category to progress in a pipeline of projects taken through early planning. It would not be possible to take all the pipeline projects through to the development consent process on to construction in the timeframe of the NDP. Advancing projects for the second pipeline will, therefore, be subject to prioritisation within the overall national road programme and funding. This will apply to any development, including any future plans to further develop and upgrade the N71.