Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When it comes to roads and road funding, I could say quite a lot. I would need four or five hours rather than four minutes. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, but the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, should be here. It is a pity they are not because the Minister has a lot of questions to answer regarding lack of funding for roads. A report published in the past six months stated that the lack of funding for road improvements could cost people their lives. I am not blaming any one person or any particular issue but if roads lack funding, there will be car accidents and from these come very sad situations for so many families throughout the country.

Like everybody else present, I have been canvassing a lot recently. People have asked me what the number one topic coming up on the doorsteps is and whether it is migration or the cost of living. The cost of living and migration are issues but, my God, it is roads that are mentioned. County Cork has been absolutely starved of funding. It receives among the lowest levels of funding per kilometre of all the counties, as I am worn out from saying in the House. A TD in west Cork recently organised a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers. That was four years too late. He is up here talking about it and sending out sympathetic soundbites. We need to do something.

The front page of a local newspaper in west Cork recently featured an article in which a Fianna Fáil councillor blamed me and Deputy Cairns for a lack of funding. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in government. The councillor in question might have forgotten that but he should have thought about before he pointing fingers at others. We can only plead and hope the Government is listening. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have refused to listen. Cork County Council commissioned an independent report from the All Island Research Observatory, AIRO, which showed Cork receives the lowest funding per capita right across the board, from roads and to local and community involvement schemes. It has the lowest level of funding. Why is that? The reason is clout at the table. The senior Ministers at the table are whipping the money down their roads and forgetting to provide funding fairly based on geography.

I will pick out one issue, even though it is not in my constituency. There is a bridge in Crossbarry in west Cork where it is obvious to anybody who stands on it that it is a miracle people are not being killed on it on a regular basis. It is a narrow bridge on a very busy road. Funding is being sought to erect a timber bridge on the inside. I stay below in Wicklow when I am up here in the Dáil. In Wicklow, in the same situation, not alone did they get a lovely footpath on the outside, and it was correct to provide that, but they also got a timber footpath inside the bridge, which is beautiful. People down in Crossbarry cannot get a bridge anywhere. There are children terrified for their lives because lorries are basically brushing up against them every day of the week. Sometimes one lorry cannot pass because there is another lorry. There are situations like that. It is understandable that there will be a loss of life but the Government does not seem to care. It does not seem to want to do anything.

As for the local involvement scheme, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, announced holy glory funding a couple of weeks ago. Cork County Council said it needed €5.1 million; it got €2.5 million. The Minister was roaring and shouting about it but what she did not tell us was that the funding was spread over two years. She forgot to tell the people of west Cork that so she conned them. We are getting €2.5 million, which sounded great of course, but the soundbites are not a true reflection. In Adrigole, there has been a road closed for the past five years. A bridge collapsed and there is no money to fix it. It is just astonishing. As other Deputies can imagine, if a road collapsed in their constituency, it would be fixed. These things happen. However, in this case, the road has been left closed and we move on. I talked to people in Ballinspittle which was recently flooded. In Courcey Rovers GAA club, the water came in from the roadside and destroyed some of its grounds and nobody will repair it but themselves. The story goes on. I could be here for hours.

See this speech in context