Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as teacht isteach anseo inniu. I thank the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, for attending to respond to the issue I raise. Most of my constituents, as with the vast majority of constituents, are decent law-abiding citizens. They pay their car taxes and property taxes. They are paying an ever-increasing array of taxes which the majority of them have no difficulty with and are happy to so do. However, they are asking a legitimate question of their elected representatives, namely, what are they getting in return. There is only so much one can say about righting the wrongs of the past and explaining to them that it is a case of putting on the green jersey. People in my constituency do not make a lot of demands on their elected representatives, and most of the demands they make are reasonable. One issue that is important and is always contentious in west Cork is the road network people have to travel every day. It is a large tract of land with a large road network and people are constantly challenged by the conditions they must endure. That has been particularly exacerbated in the past 12 months. The Minister will be aware of the crumbling road network as he recently visited the constituency. We are grateful for the visit. I do not refer lightly to the crumbling road network. I do not wish to be populist or to overly play my hand.

The road network is crumbling for a number of reasons. They include the inclement weather and the challenging flood events we have had in recent years. There has been a significant reduction in the overall amount of funding for roads. The most important factor has been the lack of maintenance for a number of decades. Water has simply not been removed from roads. I am not an engineer and do not have an engineering background but it is not rocket science to realise that if water is left on the road, it will increase the challenge to maintain the road. When driving on the roads, one can see the floods of water washing the roads away before one's eyes. It is disheartening.

I am a big fan of the old adage that if one always does what one always did, then one will always get what one always got. I call for a root and branch review of how the tens of millions of euro the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport allocates to Cork County Council on an annual basis is spent. The Department must show leadership. I am aware the reduction in funding being allocated to roads is primarily as a result of the reduction in the finances of the council. I acknowledge the rebalancing the Department brought last year to the overall funding for Cork County Council which brought it more in line with funding for other counties pro rata on the basis of size and the length of road network. That is much appreciated.

I am not here to look for another €10 million or €20 million because I live in the real world and I know that we will not get that kind of money. We must be much more clever about how we use the moneys we have. I plead with the Minister to instruct his officials to engage with councils and to have a root and branch reform of how these moneys are spent and of how we can maintain our road network. We must go back to basics: we must clear the waterways, remove water from the roads and in that way allow the roads to be strengthened. If that were to be forthcoming from the Minister's Department, I would be very appreciative.

During the past three years I have worked to have a scheme established and I made several pleas to the previous Administration in this respect. I use this opportunity to renew my plea to the Minister to support me in my efforts to get a scheme up and running. I would ideally like a pilot scheme that would allow unemployed people to assist on road maintenance work to be run in county Cork. Dozens of people have approached and pleaded with me in my constituency office to establish such a scheme. These are people who are long-term unemployed who do not want to be sitting at home and would love to contribute to the overall benefit of the community. I hope the Minister would consider establishing such a scheme in due course along with the re-organisation and a reappraisal of how the money allocated to councils is being spent on the roads.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to address this issue. The House will be aware that the issue of the maintenance and upkeep of regional and local roads was the subject of oral questions earlier today and I dealt with many of the issues and circumstances surrounding this issue then.

As with any debate on the matter of the roads network, be they regional, local or national, the House will be familiar with the qualifying preamble. As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. The planning, design and implementation of individual road projects is a matter for the National Roads Authority, NRA, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

Within its capital budget, the assessment and prioritisation of individual projects is a matter in the first instance for the NRA. Its budget for improvement and maintenance works on national roads is €318 million for 2013. The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities own resources, which are supplemented by State road grants paid by my Department. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

I announced the 2013 regional and local road grant allocations on 25 January this year. A total of €348 million is being provided under the regional and local roads investment programme this year and, from that allocation, Cork County Council is being provided with more than €39.7 million.

The level of grants allocated to individual local authorities is determined having regard to a number of factors. These include the total funds available in a particular year, eligibility criteria for the different road grant schemes, road pavement conditions, length of road network, the need to prioritise projects and competing demands from other local authorities. In determining the annual grant allocations, the overall objective remains to supplement the resources provided by each local authority in a fair and appropriate manner.

Ireland has a uniquely extensive road network. There are approximately 98,000 kilometres of road in the network which represents two and a half times the EU average in terms of kilometres per head of population. The maintenance and improvement of this extensive network of roads places a substantial financial burden on local authorities and on the Exchequer.

The devolution of control of regional and local roads is very important. With the vast network of roads serving very disparate needs from small farmers to large multinationals, a one size fits all based regional and local roads maintenance regime would not be appropriate in my view. I believe that the decisions should be made locally by local public representatives.

Given the current financial position, the main focus has to be on the maintenance and repair of roads and this will remain the position in the coming years. There have been very large reductions in roads expenditure during the past number of years and there will be further reductions in the future. In 2007 the grants from my Department stood at €363 million and that fell to €232 million this year.

It is also important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement councils like Cork County Council in their spending. The contribution made by Cork County Council, which is the road authority for the area, has fallen in recent years in both real and percentage terms. In 2007, Cork County Council provided €30 million in own resources for expenditure on regional and local roads, representing 34% of the total amount spent on roads in the county in 2007. This own resources expenditure has dropped to €9.4 million or 18% of the total expenditure with the State providing €43.7 million in 2012. This contribution of 18% does not compare favourably with other large counties. Kerry, for example, provides 30% and Meath provides 34%.

I appreciate that many local authorities are in a position where they are trying to implement savings. However, I think that for some local authorities to complain about reductions in Government grants or to seek additional funding is missing the point when they, at the same time, have reduced their own contributions by a greater proportion. I appreciate that the Deputy has not called for additional funding in this regard.

The reality is that the available funds do not match the amount of work that is required. My Department and local authorities are working closely together to develop new, more efficient ways of delivering the best outputs with the funding available to them. Given the likely squeeze on Exchequer funding, this concentration on efficiency is essential to ensure that we achieve the best outturns for the limited money available.

I wish to mention two further points. Among the things being done is "map road", which is an IT based system, where all the roads and all the road works that are done all over the country are essentially mapped online and that will allow us to use this system much more efficiently in the years ahead.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Minister's time has elapsed.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Also, local authorities will probably get more flexibility in how they can use funding under the different headings.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his response. We would be delighted with any additional funding that would be made available to Cork County Council. On a serious note, we are borrowing billions as a nation every day to provide a whole array of public services. This is about menu options and about our priorities. If the Minister were to ask the people in west Cork what is a priority for them, they would say that roads are top priority for them. I am not coming in here every day looking for something else: that is how the people there genuinely feel. They are entitled to have good roads. The county has been neglected for decades in the national spend on roads. The Minister's Department has an increasing responsibility to ensure the money that is allocated is being spent wisely. Information I received recently showed that up to 65% of the money being allocated by the Minister's Department is being spent on payroll when private contractors could carry out a similar type works for up to 18% to 20% less. We have a responsibility to examine how the money is being spent. It is time the Department took a more hands on approach with the councils to see what is happening on the ground. The allocation of the money is one thing but that in itself is not enough.

Will the Minister confirm if he would be willing to consider supporting a pilot programme I mentioned being carried out in the county of Cork? It would allow for engagement with his Cabinet colleagues, the Ministers, Deputy Hogan and Deputy Burton. I have spoken to them and to their officials to try to progress a scheme that would allow unemployed people to assist on road maintenance works under the auspices of Cork County Council. I will meet the director of services in the council on Friday. I will also meet those in the farm relief services as they will have an input in organising the voluntary contribution of people in this respect. I ask the Minister to confirm if his Department would be willing to support a pilot project being carried out by Cork County Council that could be then replicated throughout the country.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The short answer to the Deputy's question is "Yes". I would be very supportive of a scheme that would allow people who are currently unemployed to be taken on by local authorities to do outdoor work. I know the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government have done some work on that already and certainly my Department stands ready and willing to assist in that. If the pilot programme is in Cork, I would be happy for that to be the case but the lead has to come from Minister, Deputy Hogan, who is responsible for local authorities, and the Minister, Deputy Burton, who is responsible for social protection. Certainly, my Department is willing and ready to assist in any scheme like that. It is a good idea but there are issues that would have to be addressed around employment rights and so on and they need to be taken into account.

The reality of the situation is that we probably now spend only about 60% of what is required to maintain the roads to the standard that we should maintain them. Taking the money spent by councils and by central Government together, it is only about 60% of what is required. What we have done, as a Government and as a society, is decided that we will prioritise pensions, public sector pay and benefits over infrastructure and that is starting to show. It is showing in our roads, our schools, the lack of primary care centres and the lack of child care facilities but it was not always that way. If we look back to the 1990s about 3% of the entire Government budget went on transport. During the boom period when we were building all the motorways, the percentage increased to about 5% but it has now decreased to around 2%. As a proportion of the national budget, we have never spent less on transport and it is starting to show. It is showing across our infrastructure in general because we as a society have decided that we will have pay, pension and welfare rates that are much higher than countries of a similar wealth. That is starting to show in our roads, schools and infrastructure. It is an area about which we as a society need to have a debate.