Máirín Quill
Question:3 Miss Quill asked the Minister for the Environment whether all the national road projects in the Operational Programme for Transport will be completed on schedule before European funding for these projects runs out. [3361/96]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Programme for Transport.
Mary Harney
Question:23 Miss Harney asked the Minister for the Environment the reports, if any, made by the Monitoring Committee for the Operational Programme for Transport, on which his Department is represented, regarding progress on the National Roads Programme; and if so, if he will lay those reports before Dáil Éireann. [3376/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 23 together.
The strategy and financial plan set out in the Operational Programme for Transport, 1994 to 1999, provides the framework within which individual projects on both national primary and national secondary routes are progressed by the National Roads Authority, in co-operation with local authorities and forms the basis for the allocation of grants to individual projects by the authority.
With the objective of providing an understanding of the strategy outlined in chapters 3 and 4, the Operational Programme includes, at Annex 2A, an indicative overview of specific projects being considered for the period of the programme, using all sources of funding EU Regional and Cohesion Funds and national resources. This indicative overview list is necessarily tentative given the complex statutory and non-statutory procedures which must be complied with before particular projects can proceed to construction stage and the factors which can impact on progress once construction stage is reached. In addition, all projects for which EU assistance is sought have to be approved in accordance with the requirements of the Regional or Cohesion Funds, as appropriate.
Inclusion of a project in Annex 2A does not necessarily imply that the project will be submitted or approved for EU assistance. Projects other than those listed may also be submitted and/or approved if they meet the criteria of the relevant fund.
In November 1994, a monitoring committee was established to oversee the implementation of the programme and to ensure satisfactory progress in achieving its objectives. The 1994 annual report on the implementation of the programme as a whole was approved by the monitoring committee in October 1995 and then sent to the Commission. I am arranging for copies of that report to be placed in the Oireachtas Library. Reports have also been sent to each regional authority in relation to progress on the implementation of the programme within their respective regions. The annual report of the National Roads Authority for 1994 is already available in the Library.
Since this is the Government's plan for national roads for the remainder of this century and formed the basis of the application for regional funding to Brussels, on which we built our hopes, is the Minister saying that its carefully worked out targets have no validity and may not be attained? What is the position of the several key projects earmarked in the plan to begin in 1995, which did not begin then and which, according to the national roads programme announced, are not due to begin until 1996? I am thinking of projects like the Southern Cross route, the Blackpool, Cork by-pass and the Nenagh and Kildare by-passes. When are these key projects, central to the objective of this programme, due to commence? Will they be completed within the lifetime of the programme, or even completed before Euro funding runs out?
I do not know how the Deputy could deduce from what I said that we were not going to meet the targets set out in the Operational Programme for Transport, 1994-1999. Of necessity, the list and starting dates in the annex to the programme were indicative. One encounters difficulties when acquiring land. Some of the projects are the subject of legal action, in others planning difficulties may arise, and new priorities may emerge. However, it is still envisaged that the plan will be completed within the timeframe set out. We know the routes planned, the TENS — the Trans-European Networks — are also set out and, while the phasing might not be indentical to that suggested in the published plan, all the projects to which Deputy Quill referred will be completed within the timeframe 1994-99.
While I am encouraged by the Minister's remarks, I should like to see some evidence of progress. Would the Minister agree that, if he were to furnish an annual report to this House on the progress on this plan we would have a little more confidence in it? There are two projects for which there is no legal reason, or any other of which I am aware, for delay : one is the Blackpool, Cork by-pass on which so much industrial and commercial development depends, and the other is the Southern Cross route in Dublin, due to link the port of Dún Laoghaire with the national roads structure. As there is no reason of which I am aware those projects should not commence in 1996, perhaps the Minister would give a reason as there is grave suspicion — I hope unfounded — that this plan is not being politically driven.
This is the first time I have been accused of not being very forthcoming on achievements of my Department. I assure the Deputy that the great achievements of the national roads plan during my term in office will be published with as much fanfare as I can muster——
With the Minister's usual panache.
——and I will enable the Deputy to ascertain what has been accomplished. The Deputy is being a little disingenuous in focusing exclusively on the Blackpool, Cork by-pass, a very important link road of which I am totally supportive while not mentioning that in 1995-96 practically a quarter of all national roads moneys are being spent on projects in County Cork. I am referring to the Lee tunnel on which Cork Deputies lobbied for years but which is being correctly paid for this year. Therefore, she will realise there is huge investment in the county of Cork, as there is elsewhere.
At the end of this year I look forward to opening the Northern Cross route, the northern end of the sea ring, and to advancing the southern end of the sea ring that will link into the N11 to places like Rosslare and the south-east. All of the projects to which Deputy Quill referred are on my agenda and will be completed. I should point out that between now and the completion of the plan some £1.099 billion will be spent on national primary roads and an additional £114 million on national secondary roads, complementing the huge increase for non-national roads I announced last week.
Why was the requisite funding for the commencement of phase one of the Blackpool, Cork by-pass, a three-phase project with an attendant funding requirement of £4.1 million, not provided this year? There is universal fear that the project will not be complete before the Euro funding runs out and that we will have the bizarre situation of a super fall-in highway from the county feeding into a quagmire of city streets. If the work does not commence shortly the implications for job creation in Cork city are very real.
The National Roads Authority, which has statutory responsibility for the implementation of the plan — and which is separate from me and my Department — could decide to spend all its funds in Cork this year and then, perhaps, the Deputy would be happy. If most Deputies could say that between one-fifth and one-quarter of all the money being spent on national roads was spent in their county, they would do it with a sense of satisfaction and would not have the nerve to demand more. The Blackpool by-pass will be built in the timeframe agreed by the National Roads Authority who will implement the responsibility given to it by this House under the provisions of section 17 of the Roads Act, 1993.