Mr. Fred Barry:

There are two budgets for maintenance of national roads. The maintenance budget covers day-to-day work such as removing graffiti, grass cutting, etc. That budget is down on previous years and is less than we or the local authorities would like to see, but if everything in that budget is not done, it is not particularly worrying and we can deal with it. We are concerned about capital maintenance, the renewal or rehabilitation of elements of the road network that wear out over a period of years. Pavement is the single biggest of those but it also applies to bridge structures, lineage and other elements of the network. That renewal work is best done on a continuous cycle before the road begins to break up and serious deterioration occurs. It is cheaper to do it on a progressive basis, doing preventative work, rather than waiting for it to deteriorate. For example, if a pavement deteriorates and is left unfixed, water will run into the courses below and eventually one ends up with a much bigger job than if one had replaced the pavement in time. It is better to do this work at the time, as for any householder it is better and cheaper to maintain their home instead of letting it deteriorate.

There are no safety implications in the current year with the current spending levels. We have prioritised the available money and are directing it towards those surfaces where the friction coefficients have deteriorated below thresholds. We are ensuring the money goes to the right places. We are not suggesting there is a safety issue this year, because there is not, but there is work not being done that we would have liked to do this year and that will need to be done next year, plus next year's work, so the problem accumulates.