Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Members have been saying very positive things about Connecting Ireland, and I echo those. My understanding is that this is a €56 million multi-annual programme and the NTA is working its way through it. I have always been critical that there has been funding of €8 million followed by €8 million, rather than €15 million or €20 million followed by €20 million. What is the timeframe for the full roll-out of the initial Connecting Plan now? Are there plans to go beyond that? Is the NTA in the early stages of looking beyond it to Connecting Ireland 2.0 or something similar?