Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as teacht isteach anseo inniu. I thank the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, for attending to respond to the issue I raise. Most of my constituents, as with the vast majority of constituents, are decent law-abiding citizens. They pay their car taxes and property taxes. They are paying an ever-increasing array of taxes which the majority of them have no difficulty with and are happy to so do. However, they are asking a legitimate question of their elected representatives, namely, what are they getting in return. There is only so much one can say about righting the wrongs of the past and explaining to them that it is a case of putting on the green jersey. People in my constituency do not make a lot of demands on their elected representatives, and most of the demands they make are reasonable. One issue that is important and is always contentious in west Cork is the road network people have to travel every day. It is a large tract of land with a large road network and people are constantly challenged by the conditions they must endure. That has been particularly exacerbated in the past 12 months. The Minister will be aware of the crumbling road network as he recently visited the constituency. We are grateful for the visit. I do not refer lightly to the crumbling road network. I do not wish to be populist or to overly play my hand.

The road network is crumbling for a number of reasons. They include the inclement weather and the challenging flood events we have had in recent years. There has been a significant reduction in the overall amount of funding for roads. The most important factor has been the lack of maintenance for a number of decades. Water has simply not been removed from roads. I am not an engineer and do not have an engineering background but it is not rocket science to realise that if water is left on the road, it will increase the challenge to maintain the road. When driving on the roads, one can see the floods of water washing the roads away before one's eyes. It is disheartening.

I am a big fan of the old adage that if one always does what one always did, then one will always get what one always got. I call for a root and branch review of how the tens of millions of euro the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport allocates to Cork County Council on an annual basis is spent. The Department must show leadership. I am aware the reduction in funding being allocated to roads is primarily as a result of the reduction in the finances of the council. I acknowledge the rebalancing the Department brought last year to the overall funding for Cork County Council which brought it more in line with funding for other counties pro rata on the basis of size and the length of road network. That is much appreciated.

I am not here to look for another €10 million or €20 million because I live in the real world and I know that we will not get that kind of money. We must be much more clever about how we use the moneys we have. I plead with the Minister to instruct his officials to engage with councils and to have a root and branch reform of how these moneys are spent and of how we can maintain our road network. We must go back to basics: we must clear the waterways, remove water from the roads and in that way allow the roads to be strengthened. If that were to be forthcoming from the Minister's Department, I would be very appreciative.

During the past three years I have worked to have a scheme established and I made several pleas to the previous Administration in this respect. I use this opportunity to renew my plea to the Minister to support me in my efforts to get a scheme up and running. I would ideally like a pilot scheme that would allow unemployed people to assist on road maintenance work to be run in county Cork. Dozens of people have approached and pleaded with me in my constituency office to establish such a scheme. These are people who are long-term unemployed who do not want to be sitting at home and would love to contribute to the overall benefit of the community. I hope the Minister would consider establishing such a scheme in due course along with the re-organisation and a reappraisal of how the money allocated to councils is being spent on the roads.

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