Nearly ten years ago planning permission was granted for the upgrade of the N59 between Maam Cross and Oughterard. An Bord Pleanála put a condition on the permission that the method statement would have to be approved by the Department with responsibility for heritage. In 2021, method statements were agreed for the first section of the road covering approximately 6 km and that was successfully completed. Since then, a series of method statements have been submitted for the other two thirds of the road. In particular, two method statements, one relating to ground conditions and the other to archaeological investigations, were submitted to the Department in September 2022. Despite repeated questions from me to the Minister as to when the Department will deal with these method statements and give the go-ahead for this road that is needed urgently, as it totally substandard and dangerous, there has been no firm reply from the Department. Could the Tánaiste come back to me with a firm date as to when this matter will be dealt with so we can proceed and get this road built to an adequate standard?

I will talk to the Minister about that the issue is in the progress on this road. The Deputy said that 6 km were completed after the method statement was issued and now two further method statements have been completed as far back as September on this. I will talk to the Minister.