Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I want to raise very important strategic infrastructure, not just for the Cavan-Monaghan area but for the whole north-east region as well, which is the east-west link corridor from Dundalk to Sligo. First, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, who was not two weeks in the Department when he met the council officials in Cavan County Council to hear about the woes with regard to roads. I want to raise with the Tánaiste the sincerity within the Department of Transport to get behind this project that is the east-west link corridor. This has been long-mooted, for the past 20 years, as a strategic piece of work which has to be done. Some €2 million has been set aside over those 20 years with regard to the design and the preliminary studies. I ask the Tánaiste in his powerful position if he could go into the Department of Transport to see that there is a real willingness and money behind it to see this project delivered.

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