Robert Troy
Question:10. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Transport for an update on the N4 upgrade; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43166/23]
View answerThursday, 5 October 2023
Questions (10)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
I ask the Minister for an update on the N4 Mulllingar to Roosky scheme. Back in 2010, the preferred route corridor was published, after three years of work was done and €4 million was spent. The scheme was suspended at that stage and recommenced back in 2018. I would appreciate it if the Minister could give me an update on it today.
As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding in relation to 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 upgrading of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TII ultimately delivers the national roads programme in line with Project Ireland 2040, the NPF and the NDP.
The Government has earmarked €5.1 billion for capital spending on new national roads projects from 2021 to 2030 as part of the NDP. As the greater portion of this funding becomes available in the second half of the decade, this meant that there was a constraint on the funding available for new projects this year. Approximately €491 million of Exchequer capital funds have been provided for national roads through TII to local authorities in 2023. These allocations were announced by the Department of Transport and TII on 16 February 2023.
Having regard to the funding constraint I outlined, it was not possible to provide an allocation to all new national road projects in the NDP for 2023. However, the majority of projects have been allocated funding, including the N4 Mullingar to Longford scheme. With regard to this project, a draft emerging preferred transport corridor has been determined and work is ongoing on finalising the preferred route. It is expected that this process will be complete in the current year. I have allocated funding of €200,000 to Westmeath County Council in 2023 to complete this phase. As with all national roads projects included in the NDP, the delivery programme for the project will be kept under review for 2024. This will include consideration of all developments in relation to the project.
This route is committed to as part of the NDP. It is a named route, so we need to see it progress. The Minister spoke about the €200,000 that was allocated this year to finalise phase 2, which is the route selection phase, but unfortunately new rules published by the Department in June of this year providing that a transport appraisal framework must be concluded mean that the €200,000 does not go far enough. Unfortunately, this is happening at a time when we are hearing reports of a €200 million underspend on roads projects for the first six months of the year in the Department. We need additional moneys to complete phase 2 and ensure that route selection can be concluded this year. We will then need new moneys in budget 2024 to ensure that this route, which was suspended in 2011, can move to phase 3.
I am absolutely committed and we will continue to keep projects under review. We want to deliver, build and develop all projects in the NDP. If there is not sufficient funding to allow this project to get through route selection, we will make sure more is provided. A similar question was asked earlier on the allocation of resources. We have a challenge in that we have some €100 billion worth of projects already in planning, not including a number of projects such as the widening of the rail track north of Dublin and a whole range of other projects. The A5 was mentioned earlier in the context of additional funding. All of these projects are costing additional billions and we are also seeing inflation across a whole range of road and public transport projects. This means that all of the projects in the NDP cannot be delivered within an immediate timeframe, that is, this decade. TII and the Department must make sure that we keep as many projects as possible progressing in an orderly fashion. We will do that but it would be a false promise to pretend that everything can be built, given that the funding available is three times lower than what the overall need may be.
I thank the Minister for his commitment that if additional funding is needed to conclude route selection this year, it will be forthcoming. That is very welcome. I accept that all roads cannot be built at the one time, but this road requires €3 million to allow it to move to the next stage. It needs to move to the next stage because it is an extremely busy road and it is essential for balanced regional development in the west and north west from a connectivity perspective. Only today, we heard an item on radio about road safety and a report from the TII which predicts that if this road is not upgraded, we will see seven fatalities and 11 injuries. TII has a statutory obligation to ensure that our national roads are safe for all users. A sum of €3 million will enable this project to move to the next stage. I do not believe the Minister is unable to find €3 million to move this project on and to give certainty to the farmers and other people living along the road, who urgently need it.
I absolutely agree with Deputy Troy that road safety has to be our first priority.
It is everyone's first priority. Particularly as public representatives, and also in our own private lives, we have all seen the tragedy that road deaths and serious injuries bring. We have to design our transport system, first and foremost, to make sure that we reduce that. I will meet the board of TII. I met them last year and I will be meeting them at the next board meeting. One of the key questions I will be putting to them is what role they can play in helping us reduce that, particularly given the increased fatalities and injuries that we have seen in recent years. That requires a combination of measures. Yes, it is about designing and building new roads, but it is also about changing design on existing roads, changing speed limits and patterns of behaviour. There is a whole range of different initiatives we need to take to improve road safety.
I want to make one other point to give confidence to the public, the Deputy and others. The Deputy mentioned that there was a significant underspend in the roads programme or spending on roads. I do not think that will be the case at the end of the year. We have an agency which is very good at building roads and has significant engineering capability. We will spend our budget fully. The problem we have is that that budget cannot meet all the needs.