Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The report from the NOAC indicates nothing short of a crisis when it comes to potholes. I know people will say - the Minister has said it - that potholes are a matter for councils and councillors. That is true to some extent. However, when the problem is so wide-spread on a national scale and councils are so starved of money that they cannot afford to fix these problems, it is most definitely a matter for the Minister. The fixing of the damage to our secondary roads is not merely an aesthetic choice. It is a health and safety imperative. We need to make our roads safer for our drivers to minimise accidents and reduce damage to vehicles. In the league table presented by the NOAC, it indicated that 4% of Fingal's secondary roads were in need of restoration works. As the Minister knows, Fingal is the biggest local authority in Dublin with a large rural area and a large population base of very heavy users of secondary roads, probably more so than any other local authority in Dublin. We need a plan beyond what the Minister has given in his reply.

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