Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Smith on both contentions. I mentioned in an earlier response that climate change is hitting home now. We see the rain levels and the intensity of rainfall. It is not just the amount of rain but the bursts and we see the impact on the road network where we have flooding events and so on. That is an issue. Similarly, there has been an issue with very high cost inflation, particularly in the road maintenance and repair area. That is why we gave additional funding last year. I believe that what we are doing this year in Cavan and Monaghan as well as elsewhere, with something like a 5% increase in the allocated budget, will help. I was talking to the Minister for Finance yesterday. Our forecasts for inflation are dropping quite significantly, certainly way below that figure. That should give us some capability to recover some of the gap. We are absolutely targeting repair and maintenance as the first priority. Once you let a road go, it is much more expensive to try to recover it and get it back.

That is the key area where councils and our Department will not skimp or save.

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