I thank Senators Buttimer and Dooley. They have engaged in the committee and in real detail here. We broadly agree on the immediate need for this legislation to ensure that our MCIB board is quorate and that we do not leave any gaps in the institutions of the State, that we accept the court judgment and act on it immediately. As I said in the committee, I have committed, subject to the legal advice from the Attorney General, that we will publish the Clinch report and we will undertake further reform in this area la…

The all-island strategic rail review, which is being undertaken in co-operation with Northern Ireland's Department for Infrastructure, will inform the development of the railway sector on the island of Ireland over the coming decades. This is one of the most significant reviews of the rail network on the island in many years and it will provide a framework to develop a much-improved network for the future. I expect to receive a final report on the review by the end of the year. I believe this is the first time such…

The Deputy's knowledge of the area is far better than mine but I am not too sure that I would characterise the part of the country in question as being in decline. What we want to do is see it develop faster. We want better balanced regional development. In that context, the section of rail the Deputy mentioned is important. The section from Athenry to Claremorris has to be seen as part of a longer whole. In my view, the western rail corridor starts in Waterford, strangely enough. The line is completely underutilis…

I am not too sure that Oranmore has lost out on that yet. Even if Intel makes the investment in another jurisdiction, the site, like others across the country, is ripe for development because we have the key raw materials needed for economic investment. We will, as the Deputy stated, have high-quality, low-carbon power supply when we develop our offshore wind resources. We have significant water resources. Water is scarce in other parts of the world. We have some of the best workers and high-quality precision-manuf…

The Deputy was just in time.

The Deputy was no doubt moving on full steam from LH 2000. I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 19, 29, 32 and 59 together. As I mentioned in my earlier response to Deputy Canney, the strategic rail review is being undertaken in conjunction with the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. It will inform the development of the railway sector on the island of Ireland over the coming decades. The review will consider the potential scope for improved rail services along various existing and potential future c…

There are two or three different issues here but they all have one connecting issue in that they involve increased connectivity to the north and west. The Navan rail link, north and west of Dublin, has been assessed as part of the draft greater Dublin area strategy and I agree with the assessment that the case has been made and that it will be included once the greater Dublin area, GDA, strategy becomes fully legal in our plans. It will take time. In respect of the constraints, there is not a lack of ambition or ur…

Deputy Niamh Smyth is right. We have a real challenge in that the number of Cavan and Monaghan people commuting to Dublin is very significant and they are coming into a city that is not going to have the same road capacity. When we introduce the BusConnects scheme, all the cars commuting from long distances, as well as vans and trucks, will be meeting a Dublin road network that is at capacity and restricted in terms of access. The remote working that will occur post the pandemic may help in that regard. It may help…

Then we will start to have nodes that attract international investment. This is where we will have industry. This is where we will connect to deep-sea ports and renewable power. It is not an impossible equation to start to make rail freight work.

A Navan rail link was included in the draft greater Dublin area transport strategy of the National Transport Authority, NTA, as one of the proposed projects to be delivered by 2042. I am aware that this issue is one that generated a significant number of submissions during the public consultation held by the NTA in November 2020. On the proposal itself, the assessment report undertaken by the NTA was published as a background paper to the draft transport strategy at the end of 2021. It considered again the strategi…

There is no shortage of political will for this project. I am on the record in the House and elsewhere saying I believe it does make strategic sense because what the Deputy says is true. We have developed a completely unsustainable planning, housing, development and transport model particularly in the eastern region but also throughout the country. We have had doughnut development where we go out and out and out. It still continues. According to the latest statistics 74% of all new houses in the country are being b…

The answer is the Attorney General along with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, have committed huge resources to doing a top-to-bottom review of the planning and development legislation. Originally the Planning Act 2000 was a very good Act but it has been amended so many times and is so complex, multilayered and multifaceted that it is very hard for anyone to implement. The review, updating and recalibrating of that legislation is one of the most important projects the Government has under way. It will be compl…

As outlined to the Deputy in previous replies on this matter, the National Transport Authority has established a park-and-ride design office, PRDO, which works with Galway city and county councils and Irish Rail. The focus of the current work of the PRDO is looking at options and the feasibility of zones along corridors for the east and north east serving the city centre and Parkmore. The areas currently being considered include zones adjacent to the Coolagh roundabout and junction 19 on the M6, locations on the N8…

I share the Deputy's concern about the speed of development of a whole range of different transport solutions and sustainable transport solutions in particular. I hope I am not being controversial and I mean no disrespect to anyone in Galway but Galway is probably where we have our biggest and worst problem with regard to sustainable transport. The city has been very successful in developing but it has an unsustainable transport model that prioritises and promotes transport based on individual cars. I do not blame …

We face a very great issue in meeting our climate change targets. Transport is a particular issue. In addition to the planning review to be carried out with the Attorney General's office, which I mentioned earlier, the Government has agreed to establish fast-track teams in a number of key areas. We need to set targets and work programmes for the remaining three years of this Government. One of the key project teams will be working on the area of sustainable mobility. These teams are only starting. The key project f…

As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding for the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015, and in line with the national development plan, the planning, design, improvement and maintenance of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. The ongoing new bypass project consists of the construction of a du…

I will contact TII and pass on the Deputy's suggestions in that regard. His first suggestion about the early opening of the section in order that Macroom town would be bypassed makes eminent sense. It is a town that has struggled and suffered from the volume of traffic through it. It is a beautiful town which I think will rise once the bypass is built. I really hope that Cork County Council will consider removing through traffic from the centre of the town or providing for access only. We do not want to restrict an…

While I know that road like the back of my hand, I do not know the details of how the junctions and slip roads will work. However, as I said earlier, I will ask Cork County Council and TII to look specifically at how the existing road network fits in. We do not want a major national artery which divides local communities. It needs to give them safe and easy access into the town. I fully accept the Deputy's point and will ask the engineers to look at it in detail.

Since the 2008 recession, a significant backlog of works on regional and local roads has built up in all local authority jurisdictions across the country. The estimated cost of the backlog is in excess of €5 billion. For this reason, grant assistance from the Department continues to be focused on the protection and renewal of the public road network. It bears restating that the public regional and road network is over 96,000 km in size and while grant funding has increased significantly in recent years, it has not …

I agree. The Deputy is right that the Government formed in 2008 did a lot in very difficult times and with very stretched funding. It prioritised this investment. We need to do likewise in this post-Covid moment, when there is a chance to see a revival of rural Ireland. I accept that. That means we have to fund the new Connecting Ireland rural public transport system, which will be of huge benefit and help people in rural Ireland. That is why we increased the funding for local roads and made sure we maintained the …