Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. It is one of the few topics for which I do not need to prepare notes because I live it every single day, as do my constituents. Galway County Council will be down €16.4 million in 2017.

People in East Galway do not understand how funding is allocated and the difference between an N, R and L - the classification of roads makes no odds to them as long as funding is delivered. It is an ill wind that blows some good. If we had not had flooding last year the roads would not have been fixed. The N65 in Portumna would not have been done at all: we had been falling into potholes for five years. It was the main bridge between Portumna, Tipperary and Offaly. There are concerns about Kilmeen Cross. People have waited for over five years for lighting and signage. Annagh Hill will not receive the required level of funding.

People who pay taxes, charges and levies feel like second-class citizens or the forgotten cousins of people in larger urban areas because their roads are not being resurfaced. In the case of roads under Galway County Council one is lucky if a road is resurfaced once in 30 years.

Constituents are continually canvassing to get their roads done and it is hard to explain to them that the funding will be cut again this year by €16 million.

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