Road Projects Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27 ============================================================ Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel The Minister of State's answer is interesting as it is just a definition of all the schemes and resources available. It does not tackle the actual issue. The Minister told councillors there would be a substantial increase in funding when, in fact, there was a decrease. Those are the facts. The Minister also said there would be an announcement before Christmas, but it did not happen until February. Councillors and Oireachtas Members continue to constantly raise this issue, but it feels like our calls are falling on deaf ears. The Minister has not been into this Chamber more than a handful of times, despite being asked to come here on many occasions. He has time to open a road in Killydoon that had already been opened by Leo Varadkar. Why would we celebrate the opening of the Killydoon bypass when it is just another excuse for the Government to have a good photo op? This 3.5 km road will be opened, while people have to travel over potholes, sinkholes and cracks on the rest of the road network. Councillors Shane P. O'Reilly, Adrian Rogers and Brendan Fay and the Sinn Féin councillors in County Cavan have all written to the cathaoirleach and chief executive of Cavan County Council to ask for a meeting with the Minister before he opens the road in Killydoon on Friday. The response they got was disrespectful and outrageous. It stated the Minister would only be there for 20 minutes and would not have time to talk to councillors. That is the level of respect being shown to these councillors, who include members of Fianna Fáil, the Minister's own party, who are also not happy with the situation. We are being treated as an afterthought when it comes to infrastructural investment. We have huge increases in industry and a high volume of traffic. Roads are the backbone of our economy. People need to get their products to market, and that regional road is closed in a municipal district that has no national route. I have tabled Commencement matters on roads numerous times in this House and the Minister has still not turned up for a single debate. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-27/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:00+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-27