Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Míle buíochas.

I was surprised when I first read the motion because I felt that it should have been stronger and I expected it to be stronger. I did not expect it to be stronger, however, because the motion was tabled by Opposition Deputies but because the state of the roads in the country needs a stronger response. I do not believe that the motion goes far enough given the decline in regional and rural areas throughout the State. The whole system in many parts of the country is disintegrating, making it really difficult for people to function. There are calls to "consider" increasing the regional roads budget and references to road funding being "examined" as part of a "review" and a "continuation" of funding. Those types of words are not what is required. We need a stronger commitment from the Government. It needs to put its money where its mouth is; quite simply, the Government needs to fulfil its spending responsibility in this regard.

The Government is not even heeding its own advice. Last week, the Government launched with great fanfare a regional and rural development document which promised €60 million that is to be spent on 600 towns and villages throughout the country. Last year, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport stated that €3 billion was necessary to repair the roads throughout the State and bring them to the necessary level of safety and function. The contrast between the Government's lack of ambition and what is necessary could not be more stark. The Department stated that €580 million was necessary annually just to keep the local and regional roads in decent condition. Contrast that to the Government's response, which last year provided for €298 million for that particular job. The Government is not even meeting half of the investment necessary just to maintain the road stock in its current state. At the end of a collapse in capital investment that lasted eight years, we are still not even keeping up with the level of depreciation of and disintegration in our local road system.

Transport is a key ingredient to enterprise. There is no point in launching a document on regional and rural development if the enterprises that we are seeking to invite into a local area do not have the opportunity to access markets and get their workers safely to and fro or the ability to function in the locality. The major backdrop to this situation is that under Fine Gael, and Fianna Fáil before it, there was a major over-concentration of development and of population in a handful of counties on the east coast. This was to the detriment not only to many of those living on the east coast, but also those living on the west coast. Dublin's current population is 39% of that of the State. By the end of our generation, its population will be 50% of that of the State. It will achieve city state status under this Government's watch, yet no investment efforts are being made to disrupt this over-concentration on the east coast. Until we talk about serious investment, we will not disrupt that over-concentration.

In my constituency, in the north west of the county of Meath, people regularly take detours to get to work, school, the shops or the church. Ambulances, milk lorries and post office men will not go down certain laneways. Small business owners do not invite customers to their towns but meet them in a café in another town for a coffee because they are so embarrassed and think that those customers will not do business with them because of the isolation forced on them by Fine Gael's lack of investment over recent years.

This comes down to investment. After eight years of capital depreciation and lack of investment, the State is second from the bottom in terms of infrastructural investment in Europe. It was only pipped by Romania from having the notoriety of being last. The great lie of this Government in recent years is that the crisis is over, but what the Government has done is roll up the crisis in a massive debt and we pay €7 billion every year in interest on that debt. That €7 billion is an opportunity cost to the roads, health service and education system in the country.

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