Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Money has been spent but of course there were seven years from 2011 to 2017 when no money was spent so we are only trying to catch up on the total and utter neglect of rural Ireland. It would be a good idea and I ask the Minister, in view of the fact that so many Deputies are raising this question, that she would ascertain from the local authorities around the country the total value in each case of the valid applications they have on hand and as Deputy Moynihan pointed out that is with restrictive rules. Only then will we see the absolutely minuscule amount of money that is going into these roads compared with other roads throughout the country. These are the roads that often lead to people's houses, the one mile of road that they always have to travel. Will the Minister give an undertaking today to ask each local authority to value the total number of valid applications on hand? I can guarantee that this is a very large sum of money and needs much more than has been given to it. If we had that information we could go to the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform and say this has to be dealt with. It is a national scandal.

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