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

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis labhairt ar an ábhar seo sa Teach inniu. I thank the Minister for coming to the House to deal with this issue.

This concerns an issue that has been ongoing for some time. Currently, Cork motorists are subsidising road repairs in other counties throughout Ireland, while our own crumbling network is in crisis because of the depletion of resources for all local authorities and increasing challenges in maintaining the road network. In 2012, some €130 million was collected in road tax in County Cork, between the city and county councils. The moneys collected in road tax are sent straight to the Department every evening at 5 p.m. In return, general purpose grants come from the Department to each of the local authorities. In 2013, my calculation is that a sum total of €53.9 million was returned to Cork through general purpose grants, which was 8.4% of the total. This amount was then shared among Cork County Council, Cork City Council and the nine town councils. They got 8.4% of the general purpose grants, versus the 12.25% they contribute through road tax.

County Cork cannot afford this. We have the largest road network in the country and cannot afford to be subsidising motorists using roads in other counties. It is very different for a county such as Dublin, which has a massive population but a very small road network. It can certainly afford to spread some of the spoils, but we cannot. I plead with the Minister to take up this issue. I thank him for coming into the House to hear me make this plea. I call on the Department to look again at the allocation of the moneys collected and to arrange that moneys collected in County Cork from road tax be sent back to County Cork for the maintenance of roads. The local authorities are failing in the battle to maintain the roads and motorists' frustration has increased year by year. It is at tipping point now and it is high time we made a serious effort to address the issue. We have 10,320 km of local county roads in County Cork.

I support the argument that more money is not always the solution to these problems. The problem must also be addressed by the local authority in the context of choosing what to do with the moneys provided by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which gave €330 million to local authorities this year to carry out work on road networks. The local authorities still refuse to deal with the issue of water on the roads, but they must address the issue of drainage by whatever means are necessary, even if this means they must bring in private contractors. I have been in contact with the Minister and the Secretary General of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and I hope that they and the Minister here will send some instruction to local authorities to ensure a qualifying clause is included with any future allocations of moneys insisting that drainage works are carried out on roads. The waste of money currently is appalling.

I would appreciate it if the Minister would address the main issue I raise today, namely the unfairness to Cork motorists of having to subsidise motorists in other counties at a time when the largest road network in the country, that of County Cork, at 10,320 km, is crumbling.

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