Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply, but I will pick her up on something she said. She stated that they were non-public roads, but they are public. It is just that they have not been taken in charge by a local authority. They have the same status as roads that were taken in charge by local authorities. Authorities stopped doing that in the early 1980s, but these roads were left behind. They are public roads, not private ones.

To qualify, there must be at least two landholdings. The council would not dream of dealing with private roads where there was one or two houses and no landholdings. We are talking about public rights of way and public roads.

Our county’s list was completed in 2018. Mixed into that were 90 applications made between 2007 and 2012. That was wrong. People on these roads pay every kind of tax – carbon tax, motor tax, income tax, property tax and the universal social charge. Indeed, people on these roads cost the State very little. Most have their own septic tanks and water and farmers on public water supplies pay savage water bills. They have built and maintained their own houses. These roads are also used by others providing services – milk lorries, feed lorries, tractors, ambulances, doctors, home helpers, postmen, public health nurses, vets, departmental inspectors, school buses and cars taking children to school.

These are public roads. The Department says that they are private roads, and this is where the Government has gone wrong, so I ask the Minister to challenge the Department. These are not private roads, but public ones.

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