Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Private Members' motion. I found the Minister's comments extremely insulting. No one has a preserve on defending rural Ireland. Yesterday, we debated the threat to rural transport and are now discussing the threat to rural infrastructure. I, as a member of the Fianna Fáil Party and a rural Deputy, will fight on my back for rural Ireland and try to ensure that the Government delivers on the promises it made during the last general election which so far it has failed miserably to do.

We were promised that the LIS scheme would be reintroduced in 2017, something which has not happened. The funding for roads in Tipperary in 2017 is €2.54 million less than what it was in 2016. The Department's estimate is 47% less than what is needed to keep the roads in an adequate condition. Major infrastructure projects were promised for Tipperary. The N24 bypass of Tipperary, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir and a ring road for Thurles have gone off the radar and are not mentioned in the capital programme.

Deputies who purport to have influence with the Government want to see them back on the table, but they are not mentioned in the capital programme. Our county is being forgotten about by the Government. Unfortunately, we are not the only rural county that has been forgotten about. This cannot be allowed to continue.

There is a lack of funding for rural roads. Constituents who have come to my clinic have told me that milk lorries are unable to enter farmyards, which puts their livelihoods at risk. We need more funding for roads. We do not need empty promises or resolutions; rather, we need funding now.

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