Road Projects
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Joe O'Reilly (FG), Labour Panel

I know the Minister of State giving the response is personally committed to rural Ireland and to our communities but this answer is extraordinarily disappointing. It is disappointing that there are these inordinate delays. If I understand the answer correctly, the problem is not so much one of money as one of governance and management. In keeping with the new view, articulated by the Minister of State just a minute ago, that we have to speed up infrastructure projects and remove delays, all the actors and stakeholders need to be brought around a table. Will the Minister of State suggest such an initiative? The Minister responsible, Deputy O'Brien, should bring in TII, the councils and everybody in the area for a functional and practical meeting where decisions would be made. This kind of delay is unacceptable. If somebody was able to listen to this on the radio in their car this morning and heard all of this while sitting outside Virginia, trying to get through the town on their way to a hard day's work in Dublin and looking forward to the prospect of the same delay in the evening while other people were cutting the other roads in the area to ribbons, what comfort would they take from this answer? In truth, I am hugely disappointed. The Minister of State is a man of action and a decent and good man. These people need to be brought into a room. Action is needed here. This is unacceptable to people who have paid their taxes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:37+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12