Mr. John McLaughlin:

I will pick up on Deputy Ellis's other questions. He spoke about the rating system for potholes. From what the Deputy described, it is a severely potholed road. Members cannot see the chart but I will read out some of the ratings. Rating number 2, which is second from the bottom, describes a road with many potholes on which it is very difficult to drive. That progresses up to where between 10% and 30% of the road would have defects. I will pass around the chart later, and if the Deputy looks at pages 46 and 47, he will be able to determine whether those ratings fit the type of road he is describing. That should give him the rating. The key is getting people around the country on the consistent rating system. There is no point in one county purposely scoring high or low. That is why independent auditing and some machine testing is done to validate. We will pass around the chart later and the Deputy can see from pages 46 and 47 where the road he describes fits in.

The Deputy spoke about the mechanism for extra funding. Mr. Mulholland spoke about the usual divvy-up, to use his word. From time to time we have compiled reports, even before this system of rating, of the condition of our roads as people see them and sometimes seek additional funding based on the condition. We did it after the two recent severe winters and made submissions to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and so forth. While some money was released under that, it is difficult to tie the two together with delegations lobbying Government and so on. It is difficult to get extra money at a time when money is not readily available. That is acknowledged. It comes down to making the most of what we have available.

In recent years the Department has offered extra flexibility in terms of using grant headings in a different manner to deal with the worst problems and perhaps bring roads up to a serviceable condition as opposed to a very good condition. Mr. Mulholland spoke about the €50 million. I understand that if necessary some flexibility will be afforded for us to revisit the programme we outlined. This is all subject to providing adequate justification for making a change, which is sensible enough.

Deputy Ellis spoke about the north west and I acknowledge the high level of accidents, although it has reduced over the past year. We have a special, small countrywide programme which is prioritised based on the number of fatalities, with scores assigned, to tackle the worst black spots in the country. It runs alongside the bigger programmes and is intended to fix, within reason, locations which are of particular danger. Linkage to the north west is a major issue because there is no motorway access, no rail link and limited air links. Regional access to the north west is very limited and this affects our future with regard to economic development and jobs. It is a burning issue. We are hopeful the motorway from Derry to Dublin will get the go-ahead. With regard to using local roads for local access, it is true one uses the roads one has. We focus most of our moneys on regional roads, and national roads have their own programme.