Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak today on the preparation plans of local authorities for rural and urban road networks in severe weather conditions.

With the potential onset of severe weather conditions in the weeks and months ahead, I want to raise this matter today in light of a scheme I have become aware of in the UK that I believe could work well here in Ireland. In the UK, provision is made available to local borough councils for an amenity grant, which is allocated to farmers in rural areas to help with gritting rural road networks. Once successful in tendering for this grant, farmers then store banks of sand, grit and gravel on their land for use on the surrounding rural roads in the event of the onset of severe icy and snowy conditions. Payment is made to these farmers in the form of a nominal fee for their assistance in this scheme. These farmers have the responsibility for spreading the grit on all of the rural roads not covered by the borough council directly and in addition, local residents can also access these banks of grit for their own private laneways and surrounding areas, should it be required. This pooling of resources and co-operation among farmers and local residents has worked to the benefit of all in isolated rural areas, in particular, in Scotland where wintry conditions are more prevalent.

In our case, we have seen many hundreds of housing estates spring up during the Celtic Tiger years in rural areas, where planning permission was given by local authorities for these developments. Unfortunately, the vast majority of rural road networks surrounding these estates are not gritted by local authorities, which has resulted in residents being left stranded and unable to leave their homes. This was very evident last year in my constituency, in small townland areas such as Kilmessan which has an approximate population count of 1,000 residents, as well as Kildalkey and Ballivor, to name but a few. Residents in these areas could not leave their homes to attend work, school and college for almost a fortnight because the surrounding roads were not gritted. I make the point that if local authorities see fit to approve planning for housing in rural areas, they should include rural road networks for road gritting as a priority.

Based on the UK model, I urge all local authorities to consider provision of this scheme. I have spoken to farmers in my constituency who certainly impressed upon me that they would be more than willing to participate and provide areas of their land for storage of banks of grit. They also indicated their willingness to use their own machinery to disperse grit on the roads that are not included on the national gritting route. It is also important to note at this point that public transport services still must use these rural road networks and without gritting in place, serious accidents are likely to occur.

As winter progresses and in light of the serious wintry conditions forecast, I hope the UK scheme I outlined will be considered by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. This scheme could provide a workable solution and sustainable support to residents living in rural Ireland who otherwise would be completely imprisoned in their homes in severe weather conditions.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Within the emergency management framework structure, the lead Department for severe weather is the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Following that Department's review of the overall emergency response to last winter's snow, ice and flooding, 62 recommendations were made impacting on various Departments. Of the recommendations, nine directly affect areas in respect of which responsibility for delivering solutions rests with my Department or agencies.

The development of the resilience planning of my Department and agencies is an ongoing activity with lessons being learned and solutions being developed where feasible in response to specific experiences. The achievements of the transport agencies last year are being used as a base to improve their responses for the future further. As with all emergencies, no two are alike and there is no one size fits all.

Regarding the road network as part of overall transport preparedness, the National Roads Authority, NRA's, draft winter maintenance guidelines were published in October 2010 and provided a comprehensive framework for local authorities to plan standard winter maintenance, including a schedule for severe weather. Local authorities were requested to select routes in their areas for treatment on a priority 1, 2 and 3 basis where all three priorities would be regular winter maintenance routes, namely, some 18,000 km out of our 96,000 km road network, but reverting to priority 2 and-or 1 as a severe weather event extended. Historically, all the three routes constituted regular local winter maintenance practices and the introduction of priority 1 and 2 was to maximise, if required, access to essential routes in the event of prolonged severe weather events.

I understand the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government recently issued a circular to all local authorities confirming among many matters arrangements to be made locally in terms of grit, salt and sand plans for roads in areas not covered by regular winter maintenance. Local authorities have reviewed the selected priority routes in their areas for treatment on priority 1, 2 and 3 criteria and, building on last year's experiences, are catering for gaps that occurred, particularly in respect of county towns and suburban public transport routes. These routes are already or will shortly be published on local authority websites.

The route selection was supported by the NRA hosting two seminars this year for local authorities. I allocated an additional 10% - €1.25 million - from savings elsewhere within my Department towards the regional and local winter maintenance programme, bringing the total allocation to €11.25 million this year from my Department.

To ensure sufficient availability of rock salt, more than 200,000 tonnes have been procured and delivered and are now in storage around the country in time for the start of the winter season. The NRA was tasked with centrally co-ordinating the procurement of the salt supplies, but also leaving it open to local authorities to purchase additional supplies directly should they so decide. As a result, we will not be placed in the position that we were last year where we were waiting for shipments from the Mediterranean or further afield.

The level of salt will be topped up annually depending on usage to the 200,000 tonne level and has a shelf life of three years. Our salt stock allocations are 100,000 tonnes for use on the national roads network, 60,000 tonnes for regional and local roads and a strategic reserve of 40,000 tonnes for national and priority 1 routes. In addition, the public private partnership, PPP, contractors have made specific provision for their contracted sections of the interurban motorways. Some counties - Meath, Monaghan, and Roscommon - have purchased additional supplies directly. The cost of salt in 2010, including storage, averaged €80 per tonne. The cost of the early purchase-delivery this year averages €62.50 per tonne.

Our public transport companies have agreed with relevant local authorities measures to increase where possible access to those areas and estates on their networks that were inaccessible last winter. My Department's website, www.transport.ie, will continue to act as a portal for the public to access information from our various agencies. This morning, I attended the launch of the "Winter Ready Guide" for use by the public in preparing for this winter. The winter ready booklet, available on www.winterready.ie, gives information on being prepared, providing practical advice for coping during episodes of severe weather, as well as giving contact details of organisations and agencies that can provide guidance and assistance. The booklet was prepared by the Government task force on emergency planning in co-operation with many Departments, including my own.

The main message is simple - be prepared, stay safe and know where to find help should it be necessary. As part of winter ready week, my Department will publish on our website a severe weather transport information guide encompassing website details for our operators with web access and, for those without web access, their customer service telephone details. This guide will be electronically distributed to all media outlets, local authorities, Members of the Oireachtas, members of local authorities, Citizens Information and other outlets for reference purposes.

My reply covers what we are planning to do but, in many ways, does not address the issues raised by the Deputy. In fairness to my Department, his suggestion was not quite covered in the notice he submitted. I would be open to his idea, but it would need to be organised by local authorities, not my Department. Many people living in rural areas, including farmers, did that work voluntarily last year. We would ask people to volunteer, as we are not in a good enough financial position to pay people for this work. Were salt made available, they might agree to spread it on a voluntary basis instead.

Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Much of the issue pertained to insurance. One local authority gave people permission to grit roads whereas another local authority stated people would not be covered. Many local authorities do not have sufficient manpower or machinery, given the cutbacks. My proposal represents a simple way forward. If many people in rural areas knew there were grit and gravel banks available to them, they would make use of them. Many farmers would use their machinery free of charge. Will the Minister consult the local authorities or the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan? It is an achievable way forward.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I will discuss the proposal with my officials and the Minister, Deputy Hogan. Deputy Butler might do the same. It was not his fault, but this issue should have been raised with the Minister's Department rather than mine. His proposal has merit.

Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister.