Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

We have had this political discussion on many occasions. There is a gap of about €25 billion between what we are taking in and what we are spending. Everybody on all sides of the House agreed that cuts had to be made. There is no programme of Government that can be exempt from cuts in the current circumstances. We cannot have it both ways. The Deputies opposite cannot attack the Government because we are spending too much, the gap is too great and the deficit will never be closed while at the same time look for us to continually spend more money on various programmes. We had €411 million this year for the regional and local roads. We will allow maximum flexibility to the local authorities in terms of how they spend that. They will be informed it is to be spent on road repairs. There will be sufficient funding for the repairs outlined in their submissions. However, the local authorities must make that decision and local authority members have to be answerable for it.

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