Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

Not for the first time I have the pleasure of following my constituency colleague, Deputy Tom Hayes, and while I do not agree with everything he said I agree with much of it.

This is primarily a Bill about the organisation of Government business. There is no perfect rational way of organising sections of Departments, however they are divided there will be anomalies. In 2002 a rationale was put forward for allocating national roads to the Department of Transport and other roads to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and LocalGovernment because local authorities have much to do with local and regional roads. They are also involved in the national roads programme, if not to the same extent as the National Roads Authority. I accept and support the idea that one Minister be responsible for all roads because some important roads, not classified as national roads might otherwise be the responsibility of a separate Minister. Departments are shaped and reshaped partly to reflect the wishes and attributes of Ministers. I am not entirely surprised to find that the Minister of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who is also the leader of the Green Party, is divesting himself of responsibility for roads. At best roads have a neutral, and at worst a negative, connotation for someone with an environmental, ecological outlook.

Those who live in Dublin or who, like all of us here, spend a great deal of time speeding a considerable distance down national roads, may not appreciate that people in rural constituencies primarily use local and regional roads and maybe some bit of national road close to their homes. For most of their working lives they may never go near a dual carriageway or a motorway. If one conducted a survey of the numbers using the different roads one would find that 85% of traffic, or more, is on non-national roads. These roads are important but of variable quality, some are good, while others connecting important towns leave much to be desired. The same applies to small roads, some of which are dangerous and twisting with ditches that are falling in. An announcement on the local improvements scheme is imminent and it will contain good news for west and south-west Tipperary to which I look forward.

At a meeting that I attended last night someone made the point about speed limits that there is an 80 km/h limit on good regional roads and on every other sort of local and rural road even those of poor quality. One may take the view that the Government or public authority should not have to legislate for everything or one can impute common sense to people. I had to travel up the mountains today, to pay my respects to a former councillor who lost her husband yesterday, and realise that 60 km/h is fast on some of those roads.

Too little attention is paid to the road drainage these days compared with a generation ago. Farmers do not seem to maintain their drains as they used to do, when perhaps they had more time. There may have been more personnel in local authorities who were more attentive to this work. When a rainy season begins, which may be fairly soon after the two and a half months of dry weather we have been experiencing, flooding and potholes occur rapidly. The Government and local authorities should pay more attention to improving drainage, possibly by including it in farm schemes, which would benefit farmers and their communities.

Given the volume of fast traffic nowadays there is a case to be made for extending pavements some way out of towns and villages. The only surprise is that there are not more accidents involving pedestrians. Street lighting helps where there is a cluster of houses.

According to the newspapers the construction industry faces a steep decline in house building. I hope that the budget and the Estimates will provide substantial funding for the national roads programme and for local and regional roads. While we all understand the importance of the national roads to the national economy and for important centres, hubs and gateways and so on we must not lose sight of the fact that local roads, all the way down to the boreen, are important to the people who live near them.

I wish that road signs were improved. Some counties place an L sign at the end of every road, however small or minor. I discovered when a road scheme was mooted for the Tipperary bypass and part of it crossed a road close to my home that the minor road I use is a four-digit L route.

It would be helpful if this was extended to help people identify where they are going when they leave an area. Road signs could be improved and some important towns are separated by hills. The road signs between Nenagh and Tipperary are appalling and the opportunities for strangers and visitors to lose their way are infinite.

The previous speaker made a point on road tax which, like most taxes, is not a dedicated tax. On the whole, dedicated taxes are not an efficient way to run a budget; those who use our roads not only contribute to the upkeep of roads and investment in transport but also help fund our schools and hospitals. As a driver who pays his fair share of road tax, and every other tax on petrol, diesel and so, on I do not object to this. The Exchequer needs money to pay for public services and, on the whole, those who use roads are not the worst off in society — especially not those who drive large jeeps and four by fours. Deputy Hayes made a touching case for people in expensive jeeps who are deprived and for whom these vehicles are essential but I do not accept this.

We must get a little serious on carbon emissions and sometimes a little discouragement can work wonders. Take the plastic bag tax, for example. Will anyone, even a person on social welfare, be bankrupted by paying 20c for a plastic bag? Of course not, but the impact is psychological. We all waste far more than 20c on a variety of things but the psychology in this case works. A little fiscal discouragement of gas guzzlers and a lot of discouragement of the kinds of vehicles that race at high speed around our streets and country roads at night, performing figures of eight and doughnuts, and better enforcement of speeding laws would do us all a service.

I broadly welcome this Bill and believe it gives this House an opportunity to focus on the importance of local roads.

Regarding the issue of safety, our school buses travel on some quite poor roads that may be quite hazardous. A survey this morning suggests our children have more freedom in some ways but I feel they have less freedom in other ways. Not many parents would be happy to see their children under ten years of age go on 30 mile bicycle rides around the countryside, the way they once could, when the only hazard might be a dog that could bite one's ankle. The emphasis in the survey was on security and this issue is evident in parents' concerns about the safety of their children. They have every right to be concerned, not least regarding road safety. In the past 24 hours a lorry drove up on a pavement and I was nearly knocked down by a car speeding into a parking position on a pavement. We must examine the safety dimension.

We justified a rail safety programme that took in less used railways and perhaps it is time for a road safety programme that sees investment in road infrastructure in addition to the measures for which the Road Safety Authority, under Gay Byrne, is responsible. We must remember that speed limits, alcohol testing, driving tests and so on represent only one side of the equation. Accidents happen more frequently at certain locations and this is likely to be for physical reasons. Attention must be paid to the improvement and maintenance of hazardous sections of road, even if it requires the straightening of bends or ensuring that hedges are properly cut and that the sides of roads do not slope too precipitously.

A great deal of work needs to be done in this area. I welcome the Minister to the House and stress to him that roads that are not national roads are also very important.

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