Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for joining us today for this important discussion. I appreciate his time. I want to highlight a number of matters critical for us in Limerick. It was music to my ears earlier to hear the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, commit to the next five years being dedicated to delivery.As a Limerick woman, I am pleased to tell Senators we have ambitious and worthy plans to improve our public transport and connectivity across Limerick and the mid-west. We have worked on these in a consultative way with stakeholders, public representatives and our colleagues in the council chamber over recent years and we are very anxious for the rubber to hit the road and to move forward with delivery on these plans.

I will just highlight two pertinent ones to the Minister of State today. The first is the matter of Limerick BusConnects. I acknowledge the important role the NTA has played in funding the improvement to Limerick's O'Connell Street project. This concerns phase 1 of upgrades to the premier route through Limerick city centre, where we are undertaking much-needed works to facilitate the greater frequency of buses envisaged under Limerick BusConnects phase 1. This work has now been completed. We look forward locally to the councillors and the Limerick local authority delivering on phase 2 of these important works to facilitate the delivery of those buses under the Limerick BusConnects project.

I must highlight, however, that there is much frustration felt locally that, during the consultation with the NTA on the plan for Limerick BusConnects, a very important local focal point for employment and an important economic area, the Annacotty Business Park, was omitted from this critical public transport plan for Limerick. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the Limerick Chamber, other business representative bodies and, indeed, many councillors at the time to have the business park included, the 3,000 workers commuting daily to the Annacotty Business Park, which is a stone's throw from the IDA national technology park in Castletroy, several educational sites, housing and important road networks, has been omitted from this plan. I put it to the NTA consultants myself that it is vitally needed. It is as plain as the nose on your face that the people working in this business park should have access to public transport as one of their options to get to and from work daily. Equally, the businesses based in the business park, which are predominantly local, Irish-owned Limerick businesses, are actually constricted in their ability to expand their facilities due to our planning regulations which insist it is necessary to have a particular number of car parking spaces where there are no public transport links. This omission, therefore, which I have flagged previously and which I am committed to continuing to raise during my term in the Seanad, is putting our local business park, the Annacotty Business Park, consisting predominantly of Irish-owned Limerick businesses, at a disadvantage compared with other business parks and locations for employment in the Limerick metropolitan area. It is an issue I am passionate about seeing rectified.

The other issue I raise with the Minister of State concerns some critical road infrastructure we require in Limerick. I am, of course, thinking of the Foynes to Limerick road. It has been planned and approved and we urgently need to see it advanced and delivered. It is a vital infrastructure for the Port of Foynes. The port requires this infrastructure, along with the reopening of the Foynes to Limerick railway link for freight, to facilitate the retention of its TEN-T status and to facilitate the development of something we in the mid-west have great ambitions for, namely, the delivery of floating offshore wind generation from the Port of Foynes. It will also allow us to make better use of the increased public transport services being delivered through Local Link and allow our important commuter towns in County Limerick to flourish and develop as we would like them to. I flag this vital infrastructure as something we need to see advanced delivery of. There is talk of not commencing the project, despite it having received its planning approval, until 2026. I would like to discuss further with the Minister of State and his Department why this is the case.

I acknowledge the support of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, for development in Limerick during the previous term when he was the Minister for housing. We look forward to welcoming him to Limerick very soon for the signing of the contract for the appointment of the new contractors to the Coonagh to Knockalisheen road. This is critical local road infrastructure that will open the whole of the north side of the city for further housing development and for what we hope will be the development of economic opportunities and, of course, critically, it will open the area of Moyross, linking it better into Limerick city and giving it better cycling, walking and road connectivity into the city and beyond onto the motorway network. I acknowledge this aspect and say this investment is very welcome.