Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

By my estimation, almost one in five of those are in County Kerry. I constantly meet people who were down at 500 or 600 on the list. At the current rate of approximately 25 a year, the Minister and I will probably be long gone from this House by the time those roads are reached. Something needs to be done to address that. I drove around my own parish of Keel last weekend. I drove up a few little roads around Leasa Buí, Boolteens, Gortaneden and Caherfealane. Some of the roads are in dire condition. The people living on those roads work hard and pay their taxes, including their motor tax, but for some reason their roads are classified as non-council. They are public roads used by everybody else. They are used by An Post and other service providers but they are in dire condition. Some of those people are 400 or 500 on the list. It will be years before their roads are reached. The current system will not work for them.

It is an absolute disgrace that the Department of Transport is not chipping in to the fund. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has stepped up to the mark.

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