Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I will deal with the points raised by the Deputies. I refer to Deputy Dooley's point that a reduction in maintenance of the road infrastructure would result in an increase in the future cost of maintenance. This analysis could also apply to the rail network and his point could be applied to any fixed network with high capital costs. That is the reason that, over time, we will need to rebuild the capital spending profile of my Department because those needs will be there. I saw a clear example of this on last Monday and I mentioned it to Deputy Ellis in the House. I was in Donegal on Monday and the point was made to me that out of 6,000 km of road network in Donegal, only a very small part is made up of national roads while the remainder is made up of local and regional roads. County Donegal has between 4,000 and 5,000 bridges. When the annual funding is reduced the needs are still there and they will have to be addressed in the future. It is my objective, over time, to rebuild my Department's capital spending in order to address this point. Our projected spend for this year for regional and local roads is €250 million. Leaving aside the one-off funding made available last year for stimulus funding or to deal with storm damage, we are in a good position to begin but I fully accept that in the coming years either I or my successor will have to build on that figure to meet existing needs.