Mark Duffy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I welcome the commitments for funding and prioritisation of the investment in both the N26 and N58. They need to be prioritised and kept on the table and we need a whole-of-Government approach to make sure that these are delivered as soon as possible.

More specifically, in respect of the local transport plan for Ballina, we need to see action, not bureaucracy and not consultant after consultant. Simple things, such as traffic lights needing to be replaced, took years to be delivered, causing frustration and backlogs within the town. Simple things, such as changing traffic flows and changing flows around the two bridges in the town and improvement in investment in infrastructure in orbital routes to improve congestion, need to be given proper attention and proper investment locally.

The €3 million investment in County Mayo is paltry compared with the €290 million invested across the country. The €3 million for Mayo is not enough. It is not good enough and needs to be improved drastically. We need transformative projects, transformative safe routes to school investment, so that each child, each student and each teacher who goes to school has a safe route and a safe corridor to connect him or her safely, not small measures to keep people quiet.

We need action and delivery in an ambitious way. I ask that the Minister of State prioritise this and make sure that we have action on these issues.