John Dennehy (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Cork area strategic plan, CASP, for the next 20 years is based around the Blarney to Midleton railway line and there has been a positive reaction to this. This is contrary to what the Opposition says. In the county hall in Cork three weeks ago, I and the other members of Cork County Council along with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern, and all our Oireachtas colleagues heard Deputy Stanton complain that the National Roads Authority had overspent two years running. Today I heard Deputy McCormack say that not enough money is being spent on roads. Let us get it right. A great deal of money is being spent and the work is being done well. I do not see a conflict between rail and road, but safety must be of paramount importance at all times.

I could be parochial, as other speakers were, on all aspects of transport. Some €140 million was spent on Cork Airport, €137 million on the Ballincollig bypass and I already referred to the Watergrasshill bypass. The Kinsale road flyover is another local example. I do not see a problem. We receive our fair share in Cork, as I am sure does every other part of the country. All regions have good representatives to make the case in a positive fashion, as do we. I do not go along with the whingeing. Everybody receives a fair share.

One imbalance I hope this legislation will rectify to some extent is the situation where fleets of vehicles have been registered in Dublin. It has been another false source of funding, as it has been with the rate base generally, in that the Dublin local authorities received motor tax funding from some vehicles registered in Dublin but located elsewhere in the State and funding from other sources located in Dublin. The result was that, for many years, they did not need to apply service charges which everybody else throughout Europe saw as essential. I hope one of the side effects of decentralisation will be the diversion of funding into local areas from the Central Fund as more registrations take place locally. I want to see both drivers and vehicles registered in the towns to which they relocate. This is only right and will divert money into areas that were not able to compete when it was a question of allocating money according to the number of vehicles in a county area.

Deputy English had concerns about value for money on projects. I was concerned that so much work was being done in the target dates he gave, from 1997 to 2002, that we were not getting value for money because the economy and industry heated up to the point where the cost of projects was not right. We needed to change that and have done so. We now have a method in place whereby we will get more value for money. I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts which monitors this.

One factor which has made this happen to some extent is the arrival of foreign construction firms. For instance, a Turkish company is building the Ballincollig to Bishopstown bypass in Cork. Like other local representatives, I was lobbied and told that these people would not have experience of this kind of project, would be slow, would not complete it for 20 years and would give rise to a huge overrun. The Secretary General of the Department of Transport informed me last week that the project is within budget, is five or six weeks ahead of schedule and will open shortly. This conflicts with what was said. I believe her on this issue, as I do the officials who give us facts and figures.

The Bill deals with trade plate licences. Trucks are becoming so large, people want the height of the port tunnel in Dublin to be raised to accommodate them. We fought Europe for five or six years on the axle weight of trucks. We did not want monster trucks and we took the right road on that one — no pun intended.

There is a need for more control over this type of vehicle — the juggernaut and the 40 foot truck — especially in regard to speed. I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister a fortnight ago and concluded that the figures I received which are the speed limits for these trucks are being ignored by many drivers. Some 95% of professional truck drivers are competent, respectful and careful, but there is a small percentage which has a total disregard for other road users. Might is right in their book.

I experienced two incidents in the past month, both of which occurred south of Horse and Jockey in Tipperary near where a major fatality recently took place. In both instances a truck in an oncoming convoy overtook a car. Two thirds of the vehicle was in my lane. I was observant and saw it, but it could have been otherwise. There could certainly have been a fatality on both occasions. This cannot be allowed to continue. There is a need for more control over these vehicles, especially their speed. There is no comparison between a car being driven at 60 miles per hour and a car transporter or large truck, which do not have the same control, doing the same speed.

Another hobby-horse of mine is the standard of road signs. I raised the matter in the Chamber three years ago in the context of the National Roads Authority. I also raised it last week with the Department of Transport. Some of the signs are atrocious. The method of construction is the problem; they are made from separate pieces. I urge the NRA to look at a sign which is 50 yards south of Lisheen mines in north Tipperary which now has a three foot gap in the centre of it. The top half reads "NRA", a company which is very proud of its work, and the bottom half is three feet lower. That is an example of what should not be done. Instead of a horizontal join, there should be a vertical one.

The standard of signs has improved enormously and I pay tribute to the NRA and those involved for this. In the interests of safety, I asked them to put reflective studs on the traffic islands that are built near villages and towns. This has not happened, except in New Inn, County Tipperary, where a mini-roundabout has had reflective studs installed on it. If one looks at these islands, one will see tyre marks on them. They are a major hazard and should not be built by the NRA or local authorities carrying out work under the guidance of the NRA. I appealed to the director general on this issue and I made an appeal to the Secretary General of the Department last week. I hope someone will carry out the small job of installing reflective studs on these islands.

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