Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This very important motion is a matter of serious concern throughout rural Ireland. One can consider that 94% of the road network nationally comes under the classification of regional and local roads, and that network carries 54% of all traffic. Unfortunately, over the past number of years we have witnessed a deterioration in the standard of roads. Fortunately, from the late 1990s until 2011, there was major investment in a very well-targeted programme that literally rebuilt our local and regional roads. Unfortunately, with the very substantial cut in funding to local authorities since 2012 in particular, that investment has not been protected. There was good investment but the roads did not get enough maintenance and investment on an annual basis to ensure we protected them.

Many of the enterprises in my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan are sited along local roads in particular. Many of the enterprises are now major international companies providing very valuable employment both locally, nationally and internationally. They started as small enterprises along local roads, so we can never underestimate the importance of the local road network. People deserve a proper standard of road going to their homes or place of work. There must be a major increase in investment to try to stop the accelerating decline of the road network throughout all of rural Ireland.

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