Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of the N26 in County Mayo; and if a commitment will be given for its inclusion in the forthcoming review of the NDP. [43217/21]

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 has been undertaken within my Department to contribute to this review, with national roads funding being finalised and a prioritisation of projects to follow.

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, are subject to applicable statutory approval and compliance with the Public Spending Code.

Enhanced Regional Accessibility under the NDP

A core priority under the NPF is to enhance and upgrade accessibility between urban centres of population and their regions, in parallel with fostering compact growth of urban centres. This has an important 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 2000 in improving the road linkages between Dublin and most of the other urban areas and regions. Under the current 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. National road projects in the region at or close to construction phase are as follows:

- The N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin project in Sligo received Government approval in January 2019. Construction on the project is ongoing and it is expected to be complete in late 2021. This will deliver 14.7km of improvements, including the provision of safe overtaking opportunities, appropriate road alignment and a reduction in junctions and private accesses onto the road.

- The N5 Westport to Turlough project in Mayo received Government approval in October 2019 and construction is ongoing. This will deliver 20km of dual carriageway and a 2.5km bypass of Westport which will deliver improved journey times and an improvement of the urban environments of Westport and Castlebar with the reduction of traffic within the towns.

- The N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge project received Government approval in June 2021 and is due to commence construction over the coming months. This will deliver  33.4km of single carriageway bypassing Frenchpark, Bellangare, Tulsk and Strokestown, increasing the safety and capacity of the N5.

N26 Road Projects

While there are currently no specific projects on the N26 included in the current 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 Cloongulane 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, which commenced in November 2020. It is expected to be complete by Q3 2022.

- An allocation of €50,000 was provided by TII to Mayo County 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. The project is currently at Phase 2 Route Selection. Should an option be identified during this phase that would deliver on the scheme objectives and provide value for money, It is likely that the scheme would progress to planning and publication of statutory orders in early to mid 2023.