Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I have raised a matter with the Minister on a number of occasions, namely, the issue of the care and maintenance of the road network. The Minister is well aware of the constraints on the budget. The reductions made over recent years have required local authorities and the NRA to lengthen the period of time in which to carry out the standard care and maintenance programme. The greater the time between standard maintenance of the road network, the bigger the problem becomes. I ask the Minister to give us some sense of how the Revised Estimates will help to address that problem. The road network deteriorates over time and based on usage. While savings can be achieved annually, certain economists are of the view that at a future time in order to bring the road network back to the appropriate standard, whatever short-term savings are achieved only multiply by a certain factor the investment needed at a later stage.

It would be appropriate to mention that we have seen a deterioration of our road safety results and an increase in the figures for fatalities and injuries on the roads. I do not want to be dogmatic about the causes, which are numerous, but a deterioration in the road network could potentially be construed as being a problem which feeds into that issue.