Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate this opportunity to raise an important issue. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle remembers the extraordinary condition of the roads in the Cavan-Monaghan area in the early and mid-1990s. It was impossible to travel on many of the roads in the region at that time. The first major increase in the area's road grant was sanctioned in 1995. While the amount of money that was allocated at the time might seem fairly small by comparison with the costs which have to be met today — there has been a massive increase in material — it started the process of putting better structures in place. The existence of better structures, in general, is adding to my concern about what has happened in recent times. My Fine Gael county council colleagues are extremely worried about what has happened in the Castleblayney, mid-Monaghan, south Monaghan and Clontibret areas. This is as a result of the good work in building the Castleblayney bypass which goes from north of Clontibret village to the Dublin side of Castleblayney. However, there is no quarry in the immediate area and the stones and other materials had to be transported long distances on regional and county roads. A total of 35 minor roads are involved along with a number of regional roads. I will mention the Oram road, an important cross-Border road. This road has an allocation this year of €900,000 as a result of the decision by the county council and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Ballybay road has also suffered dramatically. A road called the Cavanakilta road stretches from the Carrickmacross road and bypasses part of the town. This road has been greatly abused.

Monaghan County Council identified a need for €5,547,000 for mid-Monaghan roads alone but the NRA will give a grand total of €282,000. Once again the NRA has a baseline figure. It gives a certain percentage of the overall cost of the job for the restructuring of the roads in the area.

I remind the Minister of State that this is a unique situation. This is a network of small byroads together with one or two major regional roads. They have been destroyed and they are back to the condition they were in during the old days of the 1980s and early 1990s. They will not be repaired without realistic funding.

While I appreciate more than most, the money that has been allocated to the N2 over the past number of years, it is money that we are due. The Carrickmacross bypass, the Monaghan bypass and the Castleblayney bypass are all vital pieces of infrastructure. Reference was made earlier tonight to the €1.5 billion being spent on railways but we have no railways in Cavan-Monaghan. We have no other means of transport other than the roads and therefore this job is essential.

I fought with the Ceann Comhairle and others to ensure we got the funding. We never missed an NRA meeting or a meeting with the Minister. We received tremendous support from the management of Monaghan County Council and consultants were brought in to do a survey of the roads ten years ago. This work is good. The people living on these wee roads and using the regional roads cannot be ignored. I beg the Minister of State to ensure that the funds are made available to restructure these roads otherwise it will cost far more in the long term.

Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)
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On behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The improvement and maintenance of non-national roads in County Monaghan is a matter for Monaghan County Council to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State grants provided by the Department. Before turning to the specific issue of the roads in County Monaghan, I wish to avail of this opportunity to outline the progress being made in the significant resourcing of non-national roads.

In January, the Minister announced the 2007 grant allocation for non-national roads, which at over €607.5 million is the highest ever. It represents an overall increase of 9%, or almost €50 million, on the 2006 allocation. In 2007, the initial allocation to Monaghan County Council is some €15.1 million, an increase of 6% over 2006.

Responsibility for national roads is a matter for the relevant road authority and the National Roads Authority which operates under the aegis of my colleague the Minister for Transport. I understand that where non-national roads have been damaged as a result of construction work on national roads projects, including the transport of materials to and from the projects, the National Roads Authority normally funds remedial works as part of the national roads scheme. In this regard, the Minister understands that Monaghan County Council is in correspondence with the NRA regarding funding for the improvement of a number of non-national roads which it indicates have been damaged as a result of work on the Castleblaney bypass scheme. This is a matter to be determined between the local authority and the NRA and the Department has no function in the matter.

All non-national roads grants for 2007 have now been committed and there are no additional funds at the Minister's disposal from which he could make a further grant allocation to Monaghan County Council for improvement works to non-national roads. It is, however, open to the council to fund eligible works from its discretionary improvement grant provided by the Department or from its own resources. This year, a discretionary improvement grant allocation of €667,000 has been made to the council, an increase of 3% on the 2006 figure. The selection of works to be funded from this allocation is a matter for the council.

The Department will also be seeking applications under the specific improvements grant scheme later this year and it will be open to Monaghan County Council to submit applications for consideration for funding in 2008 under the scheme. The initial selection of projects under this scheme is a matter for local authorities.

Apart from non-national roads funding, general purpose grants from the local government fund may also be used by local authorities to meet their ongoing and special expenditure requirements. In this regard, the Minister has made available increased allocations of almost €948 million in general purpose grants to all local authorities in 2007. Monaghan County Council has received an allocation of over €15.7 million in 2007, representing an increase of 9% on its 2006 allocation.