Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The other issue I want to talk to the Minister about is rural transport. While the Local Link service has been very successful in many areas and done a lot of great work and connected many people in rural Ireland, there are still gaps in it and there are still difficulties sometimes where it is oversubscribed and the bus is full when it gets to certain stops. There are also issues I see regularly in my own constituency, and I am sure it is the same everywhere else, in that a lot of the stops are basically at the side of the road or at a crossroads somewhere and there is no bus shelter or nowhere for people to stand. That is something that needs to be examined. I would like to get an assurance that with the additional money the Minister intends to spend on rural transport, one of the things he will be looking at is putting bus shelters and facilities like that in place.

Regarding the roads budget, the Minister mentioned road safety. He said that €18.6 million has been allocated for that.

The problem many of us have encountered is that in many areas there are rural and local roads that require work to be done. This is particularly at dangerous junctions and at dangerous series of bends and where there are uneven road surfaces. There are roads that are dangerous and work needs to be done. The local authorities have on many occasions applied to the Department looking for funding for that. They never get enough so they cannot do enough of those types of jobs. They are the areas where accidents and difficulties continuously take place. I would like an assurance that more money will be made available for local authorities for safety measures like that at dangerous junctions and places where collisions have happened in the past.