Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Leader and all our colleagues a happy new year.

As stated earlier, the State Examinations Commission is meeting today to discuss the leaving certificate examination. I support the calls made by the Leader and other Members for the introduction of the hybrid model. I agree with the call for two years of full uninterrupted learning for students to take place before we return to the original structure of the leaving certificate.

As discussions are taking place today, and I think the National Parents Council is involved in the discussions, I wish to repeat something I mentioned nine to 12 months ago. I refer to the fact that a significant number of the parents' associations for schools in my county and other counties are not represented. The National Parents Council only represents 15% of schools because there are no directors from the two largest school parents' organisations, which are the education and training board schools and the Catholic schools network. I ask the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, of which Senator Dolan is a member, to consider this issue. I ask because it is important that all parents in this country are represented at these discussions.

I wish to raise the issue of the N4. We got notification from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, on the day the Seanad commenced its Christmas break that there is no funding for the N4 project from Mullingar to Rooskey, which is 50 km of motorway. This means that the design office and consultants in place, which have not picked an identified route after nearly 12 months of public consultation, will close. As a Government, we prioritise connectivity in all parts of the country. As I have said on a number of occasions, when one looks at a map of Ireland one will see that the region which does not have a service to the capital city is the north west, which is served by the N4 to Sligo and the N5, which veers off near Longford. This project must be prioritised ahead of any other roads project and I mean the likes of connecting Limerick to Cork, with which a large number of my colleagues will not agree. In order to connect the entire country to the capital, the N4 project must be prioritised. I call on the Minister to come in here and explain to me, as a representative from Longford, and my colleagues who represent the entire north west why the decision was taken not to allocate funding. That decision must be changed.