Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is wrong to suggest that many local authorities are cutting back proportionately more than the Department on projects. My experience is that Dublin City Council, DCC, is tailoring all projects as much it can, including roads projects.

I refer to the A5 project, which the Minister said would be funded in 2014. If money became available, is there any way that project could be considered? It is an important project for the north west and it would be the final piece in the jigsaw of linking up the road system, because there have been massive improvements.

With regard to local authority funding, ramps are also a major problem because many substandard ramps were built. Money was provided by the Department but there are a huge number of them throughout the State and should additional money become available, it could be used for this purpose. The DCC has to maintain so many of them that additional money is needed. I do not know whether new capital projects will come on stream this year but if so, a number of projects could be examined. Perhaps the Minister could elaborate on that, given he said that there might be flexibility.

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