Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

As I stated, local authorities are told at the beginning of the year, when they receive their allocation, that they should make provision for weather conditions, including the requirement to grit roads when there is frost. The local authorities should have done this. The role of the Minister for Transport is not to finance local authorities but to supplement the grants they use on roads. In this case, "supplement" is the operative word. It is up to the local authorities to finance their roads. We pay for approximately 80% of the work local authorities do on roads but it is not my job to finance local authorities. That is the job of another Minister.

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