Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I am grateful to the Deputy for that. If he wants to let me have particular details of any local authority which is operating in the manner he has outlined, I shall have the matter investigated. I am sure the Deputy is sincere in his assertion.

The increased funding for local authorities is five times higher than the rate of inflation over the past ten years, and that is a very significant increase. A question has been tabled for later on development charges in general, but there are absolutely phenomenal amounts of money flowing into the coffers of local authorities. The Deputy touched on the issue of the spend on non-national roads. The national road spend comes under the auspices of the NRA. He has a point in that regard. It is disappointing that as the Exchequer, under a number of different Administrations over the past decade, increased the resources it made available to local authorities for non-national roads, councils have cut the proportion of local funds they are putting into non-national roads. I have published some details on the website because it is important public representatives know the facts in this regard.

It is simply not acceptable that as central Exchequer funding for non-national roads rises, the proportion of funding from some local authorities falls. Ultimately however, this is within the control of local councils.

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