Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad Mr. Nolan said that because I want to touch on that as well. I know rail is not it, but I will touch on that.

In 2013 the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and now Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, said that the money spend on the traffic guarantee payments would go a long way in terms of road maintenance and upkeep. How right he was. Let us continue in that vein. Can Mr. Nolan explore that? Mr. Nolan has been very honest and frank. He gave an honest and frank interview to the Irish Independentin November last year in respect of the money required. He said that we were under-investing in our roads by €120 million per year. I wish to refer to one thing in particular that Mr. Nolan touched on.

He has said TII does not have enough in the preparation pool and that it should be running schemes through the planning process now. He has said the danger is that unless TII begins planning now, it will not be able to get work done when money does become available. We are looking at a scenario in which money could become available again. Where is the preparation, given that there are, as Mr. Nolan said, thousands of kilometres of roads to be maintained? Another report around the same time, at Christmas time, by Mr. Paul Melia of the Irish Independent, following Mr. Nolan's interview, indicated that 10,000 km of roads were falling apart. Where are we in terms of the preparation pool to which Mr. Nolan referred?