Seanad debates
Thursday, 7 March 2024
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Road Projects
9:30 am
Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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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.
Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Senator Lombard knows that if I was going to start talking about the Inishannon bypass, he would be the first to call me out by telling me it is nonsense and I should know better. I am not going to do that. I admire and I am very grateful for the Senator's constant campaigning on this issue. Having sat in his office in Bandon and having spoken to the local businesspeople and residents of that fine town, I know how pressing this issue is and that the lack of progress on it has not only caused frustration but has stopped the development and modernisation of what is, as the Senator said, the largest and in many respects most important town in that beautiful part of the world. I am grateful for the Senator's constant campaigning.
I will not read out a script that does not provide the Senator with the information he needs. I will refer to a couple of points I think are important to put on the record to frame the debate, after which I will make a slight commitment to the Senator, if that is okay. As the Senator knows, an extension to the existing Bandon relief road - not Bantry - is intended to address a number of issues within the current road. Currently, this road ties back into the existing road network via a very steep downhill gradient. Traffic also needs to negotiate a number of roundabouts and priority junctions within the built-up area. There is heavy traffic on the N71 in this area, with average daily traffic of between 9,000 and 13,000 vehicles. Heavy goods vehicles comprise up to 5% of this traffic. The proposed relief road extension would involve bridging the R603 to remove the steep gradient and the constriction of approximately 2.5 km of new single carriageway tying back into the existing N71 to the west of the town. I said that for the record. The Senator and I both know all of that, having experienced the road in Bantry so many times.
As the Senator also knows, during 2023, Cork County Council held a competition to appoint technical advisers to complete phase 2, option selection, and phase 3, design and environmental evaluation. Assessment of these tenders is ongoing with an appointment expected very shortly. As the Senator laid out, under the national roads allocation for 2024, €150,000 was allocated to this scheme. I will make this commitment to the Senator before I leave the Chamber.I will write letters to each of the Ministers in the Department of Transport, asking them not only to engage directly with the Senator's office, but to visit the town. I will follow up on that directly, because it is the least the Senator deserves at this stage. More importantly, it is the least the people of Bandon and its surroundings deserve.
Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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The biggest issue is not meeting the timelines. The report the Minister of State mentioned has actually shied away from going into timelines, because they have failed to meet the timelines we have been given by them on a continual basis. This project was quoted as costing €7.2 million four or five years ago. It is probably a €10 million project now. A sum of €150,000 was allocated to it last week, but that will not even pay for the stamps relating to the project, given the amount of work that needs to be done. Engineers were allegedly on site 30 years ago but, realistically, nothing has happened. This meets the criteria the Minister has been speaking about. It is a bypass to make sure that central Bandon can become a more liveable, workable space. We are not speaking about a major motorway here, but about something that is in the programme for Government regarding where and when we spend our money.
The lack of engagement in this Chamber and with the people of Bandon is absolutely appalling. I welcome the Minister of State saying he will write to the Ministers, because their lack of engagement with me on this issue is disgraceful. We need to see action. At the moment, we are seeing nothing on the ground.
Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I fully understand and appreciate the Senator's frustration. Even though we have seen €58 million in Exchequer funding being allocated to the national road network, both in Cork city and county in 2024, that is of little comfort to the people of Bandon, who simply want to see progress on this vitally important infrastructural and societal project.
As I said, I have made a commitment to the Senator to take this forward and I remain at his disposal. As a Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I know how important this is to local businesses and local workers, so I will be able to bring that opinion, as well as my own deep knowledge of the area. Most importantly, I will also relay the Senator's consistent campaigning on this issue.