Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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22. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way in which capital projects such as the N26 can help to enhance regional accessibility in the west of Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32449/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and securing exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme.

Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015, and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TII ultimately delivers the National Roads Programme in line with Project Ireland 2040, the National Planning Framework (NPF) and the NDP.

In that context, TII provides my Department with regular updates on its delivery of the National Roads Programme. The following information is the most up to-date information available to me on TII’s delivery of projects on the N26.

Background

Within the overall context of Project Ireland 2040, the NDP was developed to underpin the successful implementation of the NPF. This provides the strategic and financial framework for the National Roads Programme for the period from 2018 to 2027. The focus of TII's activities is, accordingly, being directed towards the development of the major national road improvement schemes that are included in the NDP, along with the maintenance of the existing national road network.

The Programme for Government includes a commitment to bring forward the review of the NDP from 2022 and to use the review to set out an updated NDP for the period out to 2030. The review of the NDP will be aligned with the NPF and Project Ireland 2040. Work is underway within my Department to contribute to this review.

I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight that all projects, including those listed in the NDP or any revision to the NDP, require statutory approval and compliance with the Public Spending Code.

Enhanced Regional Accessibility under the NDP

A core priority under the NPF is the essential requirement to enhance and upgrade accessibility between urban centres of population and their regions, in parallel with the initiation of compact growth of urban centres. This has a crucial role to play in maximising the growth potential of the regional urban centres and the economy as a whole. Substantial progress has been made since the year 2000 in improving the road linkages between Dublin and most of the other urban areas and regions. Under the NDP, the objective is to complete those linkages so that every region and all the major urban areas, particularly those in the North-West, are linked to Dublin by a high-quality road network.

In 2020, there was significant progress in developing new transport links through the appraisal, planning and procurement stages. As set out in Project Ireland 2040, improving access to the north-west is a strategic aim to support balanced national development. The N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin project in Sligo received Government approval on 29 January 2019, with construction ongoing and expected to be complete in late 2021. The N5 Westport to Turlough project in Mayo received Government approval on 15 October 2019 and construction is ongoing. The N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge project received Government approval on 9 June 2021 and is due to commence construction later this summer.

N26 Road Projects

While there are currently no specific projects on the N26 included in the NDP, there is a general commitment for targeted improvements to address bottlenecks and enhance safety on this route. The following are a number of projects that are ongoing on the route to achieve these targeted improvements.

The construction contract for the Cloongullane Bridge Scheme was awarded in October 2020, and TII provided an allocation of €2.5 million in 2020 and a further allocation of €7 million in 2021 to Mayo County Council to progress this project through construction.

An allocation of €50,000 was provided to the Council in 2020 for the preparation of a Strategic Assessment Report (SAR) for the proposed link road between the N26 and N59. The SAR was approved by my Department in March 2021 and TII have provided an allocation of €100,000 in 2021 to progress this minor safety scheme through the early planning and design phases.