TII Response To N85 Safety Scheme Labelled "Shocking"

0:00It's not a shock on response really for anyone. And in responsibility and management, this infrastructure to put a pink to paper and say what they've said back to us there from the TIII, effectively just washing their hands, I was saying that due to funding constraints, it's not possible to progress. And that there's many other competing demands for resources. We know there's competing demands, but there's common sense around what's, you know, the most be tackled issue that's, you know, on the agenda for the last 25 years. So it's simply to be putting our hands in the air saying that it's not understandable and we don't have the money. Let's not go to enough like this. You know, I'll know these projects they're working in a phased basis. So the first stage is to simply get the, get the pens and designs and that kind of piece on it. It's not even a question about the cost of, of fixing the problem. It's actually putting, just putting initial allocation, which I call for, was to recommence, funding towards development planning. And then, you know, at a minimum,

1:00that's what has to happen here, that the project will be brought back to life, put on someone's desk and get the required annual funding for a couple of years. To do the detailed design and technical work that will be required to even put a plan in place to fix that disastrous section of road. You know, we know that the overall cost would be large and that's, that's the secondary conversation when you figure out what the plan and what's required was to simply put their hands in the air and say, no, not our problem, we're not looking at it as an awful shock and response really. I'm one part of this response that stands out is the mention of competing demands for resources. And I'm sure that the TII could weigh this up against other projects and maybe even other national secondary roads and say that on a general daily basis, others might get more traffic, but when you consider that that section of road, it will be the main archery for the walker cup and the hinge ladder this year. The Irish open, I'm sure, would be on the Lynch again or another major golf tournament would be there again. It's also the main route that most people are going

2:00to get to the cliffs of Moher and that's just one of many tourist attractions up there. Like the traffic that this sees during the summer season, it's going to be as busy as any road in the country. Yeah, look, the TII are just one arm of the state, but the state in another guy's, we were at a great event just to the evening around our own care tourism, but like, you know, you'll find Ireland actively out there trying to promote tourism in the country, promote inward traffic to Ireland and their primary selling point is that the picture of the cliffs of Moher. And that's bringing, thankfully, you know, it's a huge success story in many respects in North Leia, but it's bringing, you know, 1.5 million people plus every year, but they're, you know, delivering a huge economic return for the country. That's whether they're staying in beds in Dublin or just call where in a circle key, you know, that there's a huge economic drive and it's a big, big part of our national economy, but they need to get to the cliffs of Moher and to do that. They have to travel in 85.

3:01So like, you know, there's a responsibility on the TII. You know, other agencies should be brought to bear upon the TII to make this point as well. That's, you know, it's an embarrassing segment of the visitor's journey to that huge attraction, but that's only one part of it. That's the visitor that's once in a lifetime journey. It's what about the people that have to travel that road daily? You know, there's huge numbers of people traveling both directions whether, you know, going toiness to work or coming to a slayer, coming to North Leia, you know, it's a significant artery in the county and it is in my mind, you know, the worst section of national secondary road in Claire.