Dáil debates

Wednesday, 13 December 2006

Adjournment Debate

Flood Relief.

10:00 pm

Photo of Michael FinneranMichael Finneran (Longford-Roscommon, Fianna Fail)
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I have raised this matter so the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government might provide emergency funds to Roscommon County Council so that it might raise a number of roads in the county, particularly in the south Roscommon villages of Clonown, Cloncoran, Moore and Derrycahill-Ballyforan, where the roads servicing a large number of families are flooded to a depth that leaves them impassable.

It is a sad state of affairs that in the mouth of Christmas 2006 up to 50 families are marooned in south Roscommon. A large number of roads into the villages I mentioned are not sufficiently raised above flood level. I brought this issue to the Government in 2001. Some €500,000 was allocated and the raising of roads took place. Due to the passage of time and a more severe flood, that raising of road levels is not sufficient today.

I know the Minister of State may say Roscommon County Council has been given an allocation in recent days to deal with this. That is not adequate nor appropriate funding for raising of roads. In many cases these roads need to be raised by up to three feet. This would allow those villagers to go to Mass, visit the doctor, go to school or go shopping in times of flood. It is a sad state of affairs that people in south Roscommon must use tractors and lorries to traverse the roads and go about their day-to-day business.

I have been in touch with the HSE and understand that a four wheel drive ambulance has been made available in case of emergencies. I have asked for the Army to be put on alert in case people, stock or fodder have to be moved. There is great hardship in the farming community, with 50,000 acres under flood. I will urge tonight that Roscommon County Council be given the moneys to raise the roads to the village of Clonown in south Roscommon and to smaller villages off the Carricknaughton Road, as well as the Carricknaughton Road itself, by a minimum of two feet. Cloncoran is cut off, with water to a depth of 1.5 feet on the road. In certain areas of the parish of Moore people cannot get to fodder their stock. Derrycahill, on the banks of the River Suck, is cut off by two feet of water and only one person on a tractor has been able to get out of the village for almost a week. The Ballyforan-Feevagh Road is cut off to children attending Feevagh national school, who must undertake a five-mile round trip.

This is totally unacceptable in the Ireland of today, with the coffers overflowing with money. These people are in a desperate situation and the hardship inflicted on them by this flood is unacceptable. I call on the Minister to immediately enter negotiations with the manager of Roscommon County Council, Mr. John Tiernan, and his staff, to make available adequate funds. I am not talking about large funds or spending millions of euro to build highways, I am talking about raising stretches of road that will allow people to gain access to their farms and, in particular, to their houses, places of worship, shops, doctors and other services they may need. It is not asking too much to provide people with a basic entitlement such as a road to their house that is not under two feet of water.

I appreciate the extra funding given by the Minister to all county councils but an enormous expenditure will have to be undertaken by Roscommon County Council to repair the roads damaged by the flood. I ask that emergency funds be provided for Roscommon County Council for the repair of roads to houses and villages and that negotiations start immediately with the county manager and his staff so that we can tell the people of south Roscommon they are not abandoned.

Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)
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I reply on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche.

County councils and other major local authorities are responsible for managing and maintaining all non-national roads in their area. They have to commit an appropriate share of their own resources for this purpose. In addition, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government assesses the non-national roads programmes of local authorities each year and makes substantial grant allocations to local authorities which supplement their own resources.

In 2006, the total of these grant allocations from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to Roscommon County Council for non-national roads was €15.254 million. This represents increases of 216%, 124% and over 20% respectively on the corresponding 1994, 1997 and 2005 payments to the council.

The question of special funding to take account of severe impact of weather conditions on roads is regularly raised. The approach taken by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government under successive Ministers, and agreed with local authorities is that we do not hold back a reserve allocation at central level to deal with weather contingencies. Such an arrangement would mean a reduction across all local authorities in the road grant allocations to them at the beginning of each year. Instead, the allocation made by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to local authorities is inclusive of the weather risk factor. Local authorities are expressly advised that they should set aside contingency sums from their overall non-national roads resources to finance necessary weather-related works.

In 2006, the discretionary improvement grant allocation to Roscommon County Council is €1,014,000, an increase of 7% on the initial 2005 allocation. The selection of works to be funded from this allocation is, in line with what I have said, a matter for the council. On 25 January 2006, after the 2006 non-national road grant allocations had been announced, Roscommon County Council wrote to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government seeking a special allocation of €100,000 for a study on the ground conditions, methods of construction and cost of carrying out improvement works on the Athlone to Clonown Road. The council was informed that the 2006 grants were fully allocated but that it was open to the council to use a combination of its own resources and discretionary improvement grant allocation for this purpose.

The council was also informed that, as an alternative, if a suitable formal application were submitted, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government would be prepared to consider giving approval to the council to proceed with the study on the condition that the scheme would be submitted as a priority on the council's 2007 EU co-financed specific improvement grant list of applications.

In July this year, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government sought applications for consideration for funding in 2007 under that scheme. Last month, Roscommon County Council submitted, inter alia, an application for €50,000, for consideration for funding in 2007, for the appointment of consultants to enable a detailed study of the Clonown Road to be carried out. This application will be considered in the context of the 2007 non-national road grant allocations. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, will announce these allocations early in the new year.

General purpose grants from the local government fund may also be used by local authorities to meet their ongoing and special expenditure requirements, including flood relief. In this regard, I have announced increased local government fund allocations of almost €948 million in general purpose grants to all local authorities in 2007. Roscommon County Council will receive an allocation of €22,198,317 in 2007, which represents an increase of over 7% on its 2006 allocation.

The weather conditions of recent times undoubtedly create difficulties for the road infrastructure and for road users in parts of Roscommon. Problems of this kind call for adaptation and prioritisation on the part of the local authority concerned, with the assistance of the considerably increased funds being made available by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I encourage Roscommon County Council and all local authorities facing similar challenges to find solutions within this framework.

The Dáil adjourned at 11 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 14 December 2006.