Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue this evening. What Minister would be before me this evening was one of the best kept secrets. I have been trying to find out for a long time who is responsible for parliamentary questions on this matter and under the remit of what Department do they fall. On 28 May I tabled nine questions of which seven were ruled out of order. The reason was that I had tabled them to the Department with responsibility for local government after the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport had come back numerous times to tell me it was the role of Galway County Council. The reason I tabled such a vague question is I want to understand the matter clearly.

I acknowledge the hard work that public representatives do locally in acquiring funding for local areas. I am going to talk specifically about the national school in Milltown, where recently more than €400,000 was spent on an upgrade through the town and village scheme. Milltown national school is actually at the end of the M17-M18. It is on a stretch of road with a speed limit of 100 km/h but it is less than 1 km from Milltown. There are no traffic calming measures. There are flashing lights but the cars and trucks drive there at 100 km/h. For the past six months I have been looking for Galway County Council to provide me with a Road Safety Authority, RSA, safety audit. I cannot understand how this has been going on since February 2001. I have a document from 2001, which was the first time there was engagement with the Department when there was consultation with an engineer in Galway County Council. I tabled a question asking whether the Department could provide me with the details of all of the safety audits carried out on that stretch of road. That question was ruled out of order and the information could not be provided. We are leaving our most vulnerable, namely, our youth, their parents and their teachers, exposed, not to mind road uses on the M18. It should not have been overlooked when we were upgrading that section of road.

At the Gort end, in Ardrahan, land was purchased for the road and a fabulous job was done. The local authority members were beating themselves up trying to state it would be delivered months in advance. It was delivered, but one landowner was left exposed on three sides.

We went back to see if we could get an extension of the barrier for sound dampening purposes. I am not talking about complicated material but rather clay that would extend the existing land bank. It could not be done. All of a sudden, the process was taken over by the company and the price came in at €130,000.

If I go 5 km further down that road there is a man whose land was divided in two. Lagan forgot to put the pipe from one side of the motorway to the other and although he can have animals on one side, there is no water available for them on the other side. It is absolutely disgraceful. He was told at the end of the process that he would be paid €3,000 but the cheque bounced, believe it or not, as Lagan went into receivership. The man is without money and water and his land is useless because he cannot put cattle on it. I am on to Galway County Council on a regular basis to see what we can do, either by going under the road or by drilling a well for water in order to assist the man, but there has been no engagement whatever.

There is also the N67 at Kinvara. In fairness to the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Cannon, he lobbied very hard to have funding brought to Kinvara, which is a gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way from Kinvara to the Burren. It is fabulous. However, the authorities want to get rid of the stone walls and only want to replace it with post fencing. What will be the insurance position because of this? What postcards will be designed for the Americans when they are going home? Will we have postcards with post and rail fencing?

People have been looking for one light at Kilmeen cross on the N65 near Loughrea for 20 years so people can see when they are turning right and going to Portumna. It is a main route to the port in Rosslare for lorries but on a foggy night it cannot be seen. People met the Minister recently but the matter has not been addressed. Where could we join a few of those dots?

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