Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. Technology is playing a major part in making further improvements. However, it would improve matters if additional weather stations across the network to those to which the Minister referred, were installed, particularly in my council area.

I look forward to the installation of two additional stations, one on the N53 at Deerpark and one on the N2 at Funshog near Ardee. I understand that a further two weather stations are required on the R166 and R173, which needs to be funded by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. We talked about thermal domains. They need to be changed to more accurately forecast temperatures, especially on local roads. Most of these thermal domains are on main roads which already have a gritting programme.

While technology is fine, the Minister mentioned local knowledge. I firmly believe that An Garda Síochána and the post service could provide an excellent service for the issues Deputy Casey mentioned. Where black ice occurs and rainfall dilutes the salt, there should be a link to the director of services responsible on a particular night to ensure that, where these black spots arise again, there is a programme to get out onto those roads.

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