Dáil debates
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
Topical Issue Debate
Road Network
6:30 pm
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue this evening. What Minister would be before me this evening was one of the best kept secrets. I have been trying to find out for a long time who is responsible for parliamentary questions on this matter and under the remit of what Department do they fall. On 28 May I tabled nine questions of which seven were ruled out of order. The reason was that I had tabled them to the Department with responsibility for local government after the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport had come back numerous times to tell me it was the role of Galway County Council. The reason I tabled such a vague question is I want to understand the matter clearly.
I acknowledge the hard work that public representatives do locally in acquiring funding for local areas. I am going to talk specifically about the national school in Milltown, where recently more than €400,000 was spent on an upgrade through the town and village scheme. Milltown national school is actually at the end of the M17-M18. It is on a stretch of road with a speed limit of 100 km/h but it is less than 1 km from Milltown. There are no traffic calming measures. There are flashing lights but the cars and trucks drive there at 100 km/h. For the past six months I have been looking for Galway County Council to provide me with a Road Safety Authority, RSA, safety audit. I cannot understand how this has been going on since February 2001. I have a document from 2001, which was the first time there was engagement with the Department when there was consultation with an engineer in Galway County Council. I tabled a question asking whether the Department could provide me with the details of all of the safety audits carried out on that stretch of road. That question was ruled out of order and the information could not be provided. We are leaving our most vulnerable, namely, our youth, their parents and their teachers, exposed, not to mind road uses on the M18. It should not have been overlooked when we were upgrading that section of road.
At the Gort end, in Ardrahan, land was purchased for the road and a fabulous job was done. The local authority members were beating themselves up trying to state it would be delivered months in advance. It was delivered, but one landowner was left exposed on three sides.
We went back to see if we could get an extension of the barrier for sound dampening purposes. I am not talking about complicated material but rather clay that would extend the existing land bank. It could not be done. All of a sudden, the process was taken over by the company and the price came in at €130,000.
If I go 5 km further down that road there is a man whose land was divided in two. Lagan forgot to put the pipe from one side of the motorway to the other and although he can have animals on one side, there is no water available for them on the other side. It is absolutely disgraceful. He was told at the end of the process that he would be paid €3,000 but the cheque bounced, believe it or not, as Lagan went into receivership. The man is without money and water and his land is useless because he cannot put cattle on it. I am on to Galway County Council on a regular basis to see what we can do, either by going under the road or by drilling a well for water in order to assist the man, but there has been no engagement whatever.
There is also the N67 at Kinvara. In fairness to the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Cannon, he lobbied very hard to have funding brought to Kinvara, which is a gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way from Kinvara to the Burren. It is fabulous. However, the authorities want to get rid of the stone walls and only want to replace it with post fencing. What will be the insurance position because of this? What postcards will be designed for the Americans when they are going home? Will we have postcards with post and rail fencing?
People have been looking for one light at Kilmeen cross on the N65 near Loughrea for 20 years so people can see when they are turning right and going to Portumna. It is a main route to the port in Rosslare for lorries but on a foggy night it cannot be seen. People met the Minister recently but the matter has not been addressed. Where could we join a few of those dots?
6:40 pm
Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Minister of State might try to turn on the lights rather than join the dots.
Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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At least it is bright until 11 p.m. at this time of the year but it is not quite the same in December so I appreciate where the Deputy is coming from. As a rural Deputy I understand many of the challenges so I will try to assist Deputy Rabbitte with some of those matters.
I am taking this issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Ross. County and city councils - the local authorities - are the road authorities for national, regional and local roads. I will try to explain the breakdown of responsibilities as it is frustrating trying to figure out exactly who to go to and whose responsibility it is. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has responsibility for overall policy and funding for national roads. Each year my Department makes available to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, funding for the maintenance and construction of national roads. The disbursal of those moneys to local authorities under its various programmes of works is a matter for TII.
Under the Roads Acts from 1993 to 2015, the planning, design and implementation of individual national road projects is a matter for the TII 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 TII in accordance with section 19 of the Roads Act. TII may, with respect to national roads or proposed national roads, do all or any of the following. It may prepare, or arrange for the preparation of designs for construction or improvement works, programmes of maintenance works or schemes for the provision of traffic signs; allocate moneys and make payments for construction or maintenance works; and specify standards for design, construction or maintenance works to be complied with by a person, road authority or public authority carrying out such works.
Whereas TII has an overarching responsibility for planning and supervising national road projects, it is local authorities, as road authorities, that have the responsibility for the operation and implementation of TII's planning strategies for national road developments. When national routes are being upgraded, councils normally arrange for undertaking the planning and design work, the preparation of compulsory purchase orders and environmental impact assessments, the submission of schemes to An Bord Pleanála, the subsequent acquisition of land and the procurement of contractors. In light of the above it is clear that, in general, local authorities which are designated under the Roads Act as the road authorities have primary responsibility for the implementation of construction and maintenance works on the national road network.
It should be noted that under other legislation local authorities are empowered to undertake many other roles and functions separate to their powers under the Roads Act. Under section 213 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, a local authority may, for the purpose of performing any of its functions "acquire, permanently or temporarily, by agreement or compulsorily, any easement, way leave, water right or other right over or in respect of any land or water or any substratum of land". This is a general local authority function and not a function under the Roads Act so it is the local authority that must account for its use of powers under this legislation. The Minister has no role in the oversight of individual projects on national roads. It is far from layman's language but it is specific to the legislation.
The Deputy mentioned the N67 and the roads department has indicated that TII has recently introduced a new boundary treatment with the aim of providing more forgiving roadsides in accordance with the Road Safety Authority strategy for 2013 to 2020. In this context, TII's road standards now only permit the use of timber posts and tensioned mesh fencing within eight metres of the road edge for 100 km/h roads unless a safety barrier is erected in front of the hazard or departure from the standard is approved by TII. It is understood that in the particular case of the N67 project, the existing boundary wall comprises a variety of boundary treatments, including fine examples of dry stone walls, rendered block walls in the vicinity of dwellings, concrete posts and rail fence. Approximately 80% of all boundaries are mature hedgerows that have developed over collapsed rubble walls.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We can come back to that.
Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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Perhaps I can finish it after the supplementary question.
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State has answered my question. He has told me it is to do with the county councils so why has the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government not come here to answer my questions? I do not have a problem with the Minister of State's Department, it seems, but rather with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. Its people are not answering their phones and they are infuriating, frustrating and annoying me. They are letting us down completely with their communication.
I have experience of the N63, the road from Roscommon to Galway. It is a fantastic stretch of road and €850,000 was allocated to it. It was a magnificent improvement for the areas from Abbeyknockmoy to Annagh Hill. The county council forgot to put a compulsory purchase order, CPO, in for the land. I asked the Minister a number of times when a compulsory purchase order would overrule a way leave. There was a group water scheme in this area that was not purchased by way of CPO. While the road has been upgraded in the past number of weeks, the contractors have pulled the pipes from the road. On the hottest day of the year so far two weeks ago - on 28 May, the day I put this question - one man lost three cattle because the contractor decided to pull the pipe up from the road. That pipe was owned by the group scheme and was not purchased by Galway County Council. It was not even on the design plan. There is much frustration because of a lack of communication between the council, local residents and the general public, business owners and farmers. It is inexcusable. We are about to start a project on the N67 where there is no transparency and it is not good enough.
I apologise to the Minister of State, who has been sent in here in good faith. It is his colleague, the Minister for Housing, Community and Local Government, who needs to take the heat on this. Somewhere along the line, people must be accountable and responsible. Washing machines have been blown because pressure was turned too high when water was turned back on. Pipes are not being rinsed. The group water scheme should receive some communication.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy might table an issue specifically directed to the appropriate Minister.
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I did not know until today to whom I should address it.
Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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There is an overlap between Departments in that respect. I have not operated in a dual mandate system and I know it can be frustrating as a Member of the Oireachtas trying to get accountability from local authorities. One does not have a forum in which to demand answers. There are matters that are not being addressed by members of Galway County Council and the executive and officials could be held to account.
Perhaps the Deputy's good colleagues could liaise with her in this regard.
I have a further response in respect of the N67, and the details relating to the project, which I will supply to the Deputy. She also mentioned Ardrahan and Milltown. I am quite familiar with that road, having travelled up and down during my three years attending college in Galway. That is some time ago now. There have been some improvements to some sections of that road but there are others in respect of which work is still required. It is a road with which I am very familiar and I appreciate that people can drive very fast on it. Speed is certainly a factor in the context of the Milltown Road. Any primary school located at the side of a national secondary route on which there is a 100 km/h speed limit is a concern and special protection must be afforded to it. Whatever traffic calming measures that could be put in place there need to be put in place because we are talking about the safety of children. They may not see the dangers that other road users see and need to be given special treatment as a result.
I will pass on to the Minister the specific cases to which the Deputy referred. I have a written response on the N67 that I can supply to her afterwards.