Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to discuss the need for the Minister for Transport to provide an update on progress for phase 2 of the N71 Bandon southern relief road. As the Minister of State is very much aware, Bandon is the biggest town in west Cork. Its population has increased dramatically since 2016. According to the most recent census, it has gone up by 17% to over 8,000 people. There has also been significant investment in the town in the past few years, including €30.5 million spent on the Bandon flood relief scheme to make the town is safe. We saw the effects of that in recent months. Some 392 properties are now safe from flooding. We had a €21 million investment in the wastewater treatment plant and main drainage, which has been very effective in ensuring the town has potential to grow. A public realm scheme is now under way too. Investment in Bandon in the past ten years has amounted to approximately €50 million.

The big missing piece of the jigsaw is the extension of the town bypass, which is required to make sure Bandon can thrive and move forward. I came across a very interesting article from 30 years ago in the Bandon Opinion, which stated that work had begun on the extension of the relief road and a group of engineers had surveyed the area in the preceding days with a view to creating a proper bypass for the town. That article was published in March 1994. Since then works have not commenced and there has been no major progress on these schemes. I have raised the need for this relief road to proceed several times in the House. I acknowledge the Minister of State is here but I raised this issue in April 2023 with the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, in April 2021 with the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, and in 2020 with the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. I have failed to get a Minister from the Department to come to the Chamber to discuss it or to come to Bandon to look at the issue. Although it is great to have the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, here, I cannot understand why the Department will not send anyone to the Seanad to discuss the matter. I have had four years of hiding, which is not good enough. There needs to be accountability on this issue.

The last time we debated this issue, the Department had a cut-and-paste job done to tell me about the Inishannon and Bantry bypasses. I hope the Minister of State did not come here this morning to tell me about Inishannon and Bantry. We need a progress report on why the Department is not hitting its own deadlines. What do I mean by its own deadlines? The Department previously set out clearly that the project assessment would be completed by quarter 2 of 2023. It has not been completed. The findings and metrics report for stage 2 was also to be finished by quarter 2 of 2023. That has not been completed either. As for the option report on public consultation, that was to be finished by the end of December 2023. It has not even begun. The Department has failed to meet its own deadlines on this issue and the relevant Ministers will not come to the Chamber to discuss it.

The frustration is beyond all belief. We have traffic movements through Bandon that are frightening in many ways. There are more than 14,000 traffic movements through the town every day. The Minister of State was in my office in Bandon. Every day, 700 HGVs pass through because they cannot go up the other bypass as the road is basically too steep. We need to have this investment but we also need engagement. An allocation of €150,000 was made towards this multimillion-euro project in recent weeks. It is not being looked at in the Department, which does not want to deal with or discuss it and the Ministers do not want to come to the Chamber to discuss it either.