Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his answer and I sincerely hope the review can be completed shortly. Obviously, when the Department is disbursing public money, there has to be a cost-benefit ratio but one thing that concerns me is that in assessing the merit of flood relief schemes, not enough consideration is given to sparsely populated areas and to roads and arterial routes that may have relatively low levels of traffic. We may have a local road but that is the motorway for the local community. I know criteria must be laid down in regard to public expenditure and we all understand that. However, one criterion of this scheme is that there has been flooding over a considerable period of time. I know from talking to engineers, farmers and people living in the countryside that a flood that rises quickly can be very dangerous. That same flood may also decrease or go down very quickly but that type of flooding does not meet the criteria of the Department's scheme at present. I am familiar with certain rural roads, as are all of us who are out late at night, coming and going to meetings and so on, where at times after heavy rainfall, with water coming down from mountains or high hills, there is flash flooding and very dangerous conditions. Unfortunately, there have been fatalities over the years and serious accidents. I appeal to the Minister of State to ask his officials to amend that particular part of the criteria. I also ask him to take into account roads that have lesser volumes of traffic.

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