I want to talk about the Connecting Ireland document, which aims to connect Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway and to provide an alternative to the M20 and M25 motorways, which the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, believes will cost a fortune and is too expensive.

The Government's vision for Ireland 2040 is to achieve connectivity and balanced regional development. Our regional cities are important. We are told Cork, Limerick and Waterford cities are instrumental to this new vision. The cities need to be connected to achieve economic growth and to access ports and airports. Tipperary County Council, Waterford City & County Council and Kilkenny County Council have made submissions on the upgrading of the N24 to motorway standard as part of the Ireland 2040 vision. Submissions were made by Tipperary County Council on the mid-term review of capital projects and the voluntary Cork-Limerick Alliance Group also made submissions. It is important these people are listened to. We can get to Cahir from Limerick and on to Cork or Dublin with a maximum delay of nine to 12 minutes. It is an investment of €3.8 billion to undertake that development as opposed to €10.3 billion in capital expenditure to do the M25 and the M20 motorways, not to mention the damage and impact on the environment and everything else. It brings negligible travel time differences and transport 2040 goals will be met in a fraction of the time.

There will a greater return on investment on the M8, which is totally underused and was probably at 50% capacity pre-Covid. It will create regional access to the motorway infrastructure and lead to fewer cars on the N20 and N25. Faster port access is vital, considering Brexit and related issues. Connecting the ports of Galway and Foynes and on to Rosslare and Waterford is vital with Brexit.

This document is lovely. I ask the Tánaiste to look at an independent evaluation of the proposal for the M25 to go from Limerick to Cork. We can do it for a fraction of the cost. Cahir is the central crossroads in Munster, certainly, and almost in Ireland. We could have a digital hub for heavy industries and, indeed, all kinds of industry. The town is adjacent to two motorways, namely, the M8 and M24.

We do not want another children's hospital that started out at €600 million, is now almost at €3 billion, is still not built and has had huge delays almost a half-decade later than delivery. This can be delivered. The people, energy, enthusiasm and expertise are out there. They are not all confined to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and the Department. People have good ideas that should be listened to. Connect Limerick to Cahir and on to bypass Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir and on to Waterford and Piltown in County Kilkenny, which is a notorious spot that has had several fatalities. Please go back and re-examine this before it is too late and try to develop this link. We will then have connectivity with Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway, which is very important.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As he will be aware, Project Ireland 2040: National Development Plan 2018-2027 is currently under review. We expect to be in a position to publish the revised and updated national development plan in the summer, most likely in June or July. That will project out to 2030 in terms of the major infrastructure projects we intend to progress during that period.

It has been a long-standing objective of successive Governments to connect all our cities by motorway or by high-quality road. We have made enormous progress in that regard in the last couple of decades. One thing we need to bear in mind, particularly taking into account the need for climate action, is that we need to now look at this in the round. Connecting cities can be done in two ways: by rail and by road. We need, therefore, to weigh up options in terms of closer and faster connections by rail as well as by road, and ideally both. We also need to bear in mind that when we progress these projects, it is not just about connecting the cities but also bypassing the towns along the way. If I understood him correctly, I believe the Deputy suggested that the link should be from Cahir to Limerick, and that could double as the link from Cork to Limerick. That is true, but it does nothing for Buttevant or Charleville, towns which are heavily congested and need to be bypassed and relieved of that traffic. There is also the issue of Foynes, Adare and Kilmallock, which are linked into road projects between Cork and Limerick, such as the Foynes to Limerick road which includes the Adare bypass.

All this, therefore, must be looked at in the round as we seek to review the national development plan. The programme for Government gives a clear commitment that new investment in transport will be split 2:1 in favour of public transport, with two thirds of the money going into public transport and one third going into new road developments. What is absolutely certain, however, is that there will not be enough money to do all the projects we would like, whether it is all the public transport projects in the cities or all the road projects in cities, towns and counties around Ireland. We will, therefore, need to make some choices.

I do not have any issue with those towns the Tánaiste mentioned in counties Cork and Limerick; they need bypasses. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, however, is in favour of smaller ring roads or smaller bypasses, not a huge motorway. The Tánaiste must look at the funding, which is staggering. It is €3.8 billion versus €10.3 billion. That is €3.8 billion to go from Limerick to Cahir and on to Waterford with connectivity back to Cork or Dublin against €10.3 billion to do the Cork-Limerick, and indeed, Cork-Waterford roads. It is a no-brainer with the impact on the environment and so forth. Of course, we have a reasonable rail service that needs to be upgraded. Certainly, however, this must be re-examined in this timely review because if we get connectivity to those cities, the people in those places mentioned by the Tánaiste - Adare and all the other towns - will have less and less traffic because all the heavy trucks will be gone.

Lastly and most importantly, Tipperary town is completely jammed with lorries. We must get the trucks out. There is extra traffic now because they are going to Rosslare instead of Dublin as a result of the issues with Brexit in different ports. Get the lorries out of those towns in order that people can live and breathe and have a nice town like Clonakilty, which we saw featured on a television programme recently. This could be done with a simple ring road, proper planning and by listening to people who have different and good ideas, which have also been also costed.

We will do that. We will listen to ideas and examine the different proposals people have to better connect our cities and bypass our towns. I absolutely agree with the Deputy. Tipperary town needs to be bypassed. It is really suffering and struggling and bears the weight of a lot of freight traffic. When I was Minister with responsibility for transport, I remember working very hard with the then Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, who is in the Chamber, to save those rail lines mentioned by the Deputy in Munster and County Tipperary and put forward a proposal for a one-way system or bypass for the town, which councillors decided against. It was their prerogative to do so. We now need to find a new solution for that town to make sure it gets bypassed. That in itself will help regenerate the town, which is desperately needed.