Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies who tabled the motion for giving Members from across the House the opportunity to enunciate their constituencies' issues. As a Minister of State in this Department, I understand the issue of rural roads well. I come from one of the most rural constituencies in the country.

I acknowledge the points made by the Minister, Deputy Ross, and other contributors. We all appreciate the role that our road network plays in providing access to jobs, education, health services, social networks and recovery in our economy. As outlined by the Minister, the financial crisis and the resulting funding cutbacks of recent years had a major and tangible impact on the maintenance and improvement of our road network.

Given the very extensive nature of Ireland’s public road network, with twice the European average per capita, the real challenge for the Government in recent years has been to balance the concerns about the condition of the road network while operating within very limited financial resources. The difficult choices which had to be made resulted in major cuts in funding for the road network.

The statistics for recent years have been stark due to funding constraints with only half the required road pavement works having been undertaken on the regional and local road network and the priority for both Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has been focused on maintaining the network in as serviceable a condition as possible. In the case of regional and local roads, that meant concentrating resources on the maintenance and renewal of the public road network rather than new projects. While the Minister referred earlier to funding provided by the Department for road infrastructure, further funding is being provided under the CLÁR programme, which was reopened by my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, in October last year. The programme provides funding for small-scale infrastructural projects, including roads, in disadvantaged rural areas that have experienced significant levels of depopulation. That is a welcome development.

CLÁR 2016 provided funding for three measures, namely, safety measures for schools and communities, sports facilities, playgrounds and multi-use games areas, MUGAs, and local access roads. All 23 local authorities with designated CLÁR areas were invited to make submissions under the measures and in the context of their own county development plan funding. Following an assessment of the applications received, on 1 December 2016, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, announced funding of €8.24 million to 651 successful projects under the programme. Some of the road projects which received funding under CLÁR in 2016 included pedestrian crossings at schools, new road markings and road safety signage, among others. The Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has a budget of €5 million for CLÁR for 2017 and details of the 2017 CLÁR scheme will be finalised and announced shortly.

While the funding available for roads will take some years to build up under the capital plan 2016-2021, by the end of the period, transport sector plan funding levels will be back to where they need to be to support maintenance and renewal of the road network. Given the scale of the crisis the country faced and the need to ensure expenditure programmes are sustainable, the gradual restoration of funding was the prudent approach to take. As the Minister, Deputy Ross, highlighted earlier, there is a very strong case for additional investment in transport infrastructure. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has now launched the review process for the capital plan and has identified €2.65 billion as the extra capital funding that can be allocated within the current capital plan period. The Minister, Deputy Ross, and I are very hopeful that this process will result in additional funding for the transport sector while recognising that the final decisions on allocations are matters for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

In the limited time available to me, I welcome the fact that my county of Limerick received an additional €3 million this year from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which is badly needed. A reference was made to speed limits. For the first time in many years local authorities have received allocations this year from Transport Infrastructure Ireland to carry out the remaining element of work required to complete the national road network speed limit review. Local authorities have engaged with Transport Infrastructure Ireland and it is up to local authority members at this stage to adopt or reject the plans drawn up by TII. Money is being made available for the movement of signs. It is also important to pay tribute, as several Deputies have done, to outdoor staff in local authorities across the country. This has been a very mild winter but in recent years the weather has wreaked havoc on the roads and it should be pointed out that local authority staff have gone out in the worst form of inclement weather.

One of the most important things local authorities can do, as several Deputies alluded to, is in regard to roadside drainage. There has not been a proper programme in that regard for many years and that is something we really need to get back to because in many cases we are putting good money in after bad. Roads are not being properly drained and the lack of local knowledge about inlets and water tables is a considerable problem. I welcome the consensus on the motion. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for his latitude. I also thank the Deputies who tabled the motion.

See this speech in context