Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader for two debates. One is around the recent report issued by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, that failure to invest in road projects could lead to an additional 77 deaths or 380 serious road injuries. More specifically, in relation to my county, there is the M11-N11 upgrade scheme, on which the report identified that four fatalities and seven serious injuries could occur. This upgrade has been stalled by the current Minister and has been replaced with what is described as the M11-N11 bus priority interim scheme. The key word there is "interim", which does not address the core issue. I would also like to support the members on Wicklow County Council, who called at last Monday's meeting for the suspension of this interim scheme and the reinstatement of the main scheme. The interim scheme will cause significant problems for people in Bray because it will close one of the most important exit routes from Bray. The proposal will add total chaos to the M11-N11 and cause further congestion in Bray by making commuters go back into the town and around it. It takes no account of the population increase in County Wicklow, right down the N11 as far as Gorey, and the number of people who use this route. It also takes no account of the Government's strategy to develop Rosslare as a Europort and the heavy haulage traffic that will be on this route. We were five years into this main project. It was a 20-year project. This main project was needed five years ago but it is being delayed even further again and it will be another 20 years before we have it. I cannot even stress how bad the traffic is. It is every day, Monday to Friday and now it is every Saturday evening when you leave Dublin between 11.30 p.m. and 1 a.m. and on the way back into Dublin that evening any time between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Now, seven days a week, the M11-N11 is becoming a car park. The interim scheme does not cut it. The main scheme can encompass the interim scheme. A wider debate is needed on the TII report.

In the 30 seconds I have left, I would like to ask for a debate on the importance of homeownership and what it means to families, communities and society in general. More importantly, I wish to discuss how current Government support schemes are helping and restoring the aspiration of homeownership through the help-to-buy and first home schemes. I would like to debate some reports at the moment regarding the deadweight mentioned in relation to the help-to-buy scheme. Let us ask the 40,000 families who have availed of the scheme if they consider themselves deadweight. Let us ask the 2,000 people who, in the first year, have had their aspiration of owning a home reinstated through the first home scheme. Let us have a debate in this Chamber on the value of homeownership to us, families, communities and society.