Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand the point the Senator is making about the revised national development plan, which is scheduled to be published in early October. It is imminent. I am not privy to whether specific road projects will feature on a long list of individual projects or if there will be overall funding and thematic approaches, with the line Departments and TII then working out the specifics. I am not privy to the nature of the document which will come out next week. I will pass on the Senator's views on the matter to the Minister for Transport, who is the line Minister, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Even when a project is included in the national development plan, it still has to go through the required approval under the public spending code, in terms of planning, consents and such issues. It is important these projects get priority, but even with the priority, there is still quite a process to go through. We will continue to monitor this situation.