Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank Deputy Michael Collins and his colleagues for providing me with two minutes to speak in this very topical debate to which everyone wants to contribute. I compliment Deputy Mattie McGrath and his colleagues on raising this very important issue.

Time is limited and I will adhere to the rules. I echo much of what my constituency colleague, Deputy Fitzmaurice, said. I am pleased the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, is present because he is a listener and he will take the message back. I will be very parochial. The constituency of Roscommon-Galway was utterly devastated last year. The total bill to fix the roads and bridges, as submitted by the county engineer, came to €11.5 million. We got €6.5 million. Roscommon is still 4% to 5% behind what the east coast got. One must remember that before one starts to talk about an increase of 4%. We have a deficit of €5 million. Roads are still not properly passable in County Roscommon and in parts of Galway. The Minister, Deputy Ross, has totally neglected the county that was worst affected by the floods. While I welcome the allocation of 11.4% and the 4% increase, it will still leave us with a deficit of €5 million. The senior engineer, area engineers, overseers and workers who were called by the politicians at 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock and 5 o'clock in the morning and got up and went way beyond the call of duty to help people-----

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