Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for being present and the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this particular issue regarding what is described as a rampart road. Such a road is built on peat, is raised, and has the unfortunate habit of deteriorating very quickly in a short space of time. This road is in a very historic area. It runs from the location where I hold my clinic, which we politicians have to do on a regular basis, from the historic location at Ballagh in Donadea. It is now Connolly's pub; it used to be Taaffe's. The road goes westward from there, past another historic place, Roche's pub. I do not spend my time travelling to all the pubs but the road passes them. It goes past Roche's pub and continues for another three or four miles almost to Timahoe.

The problem is that the road is now in a dangerous condition. This is not due to potholes. There are no potholes and the surface is smooth but every foot or yard there is a massive depression where the road has subsided. Anyone travelling more than 30 mph is in danger of overturning their car. The road is in a dangerous condition.

These obstacles are to be found every yard. If you get five yards without such an obstruction, you are very lucky, so the road is dangerous and is getting worse. The reason it has got so bad so quickly is that it delivers a lot of heavy traffic, there has been a lot of investment in the immediate area, which is in the middle of the countryside, and a lot of jobs arising from that. There is a lot of transport traffic necessitated by the location of those jobs in the area. The important thing, however, is that we register the message in whatever quarter is relevant of the need to do something about this to address the condition of the road in the next fortnight or three weeks at the latest because something will happen. There will be an accident and it can be averted if we deal with it now.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Durkan for bringing this matter and the condition of the road to the House's attention.

The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority in accordance with the Roads Act 1993, as amended. Works on those roads are funded from councils' own resources supplemented by State road grants, where applicable. I am told that the maintenance of the rampart road from Ballagh to Timahoe in County Kildare is, therefore, the direct responsibility of Kildare County Council.

The Department of Transport says that it provides grant funding to assist local authorities in carrying out their functions as the statutory road authorities. Within the available budget, the Department's grant funding for the maintenance of regional and local roads is allocated, the Department says, on as fair and as equitable a basis as possible to eligible local authorities. Grants in the main grant categories are allocated based on the length of the road network within a local authority's area of responsibility, with some account taken of traffic.

As the Deputy says, the matter of the construction and improvement of road on peatlands has always been a very challenging task in geotechnical engineering. Rampart roads, which are generally narrow raised roads without verges, can be constructed over peat, but particular difficulties, as the Deputy said, arise with roads over peat because peat provides such a poor foundation for road pavement as it is frequently weak and highly compressible compared with more normal subsurfaces, such as boulder clay. Because of that, it is very hard to maintain a high level of serviceability on such roads. Councils have approached the Department from time to time asking whether the cost and difficulty of maintaining roads over peat could be taken into account in the grant allocation process. The Department's position on that is that grant allocations based primarily on the length of network in a particular local authority are seen as the most equitable approach. If other criteria such as road condition, for example, were used as a basis for grants, then, the Department says, that could have the effect of rewarding councils that do not prioritise roads maintenance when allocating their own resources.

As part of its policy development role, the Department has initiated a review of existing guidance on the management of roads over peat with a view to assessing performance of different methodologies to provide updated guidance.

I am not exactly sure what that last bit means - forgive me - but I think the Department is cognisant of the particular difficulty with peat.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. That is what I am trying to do - to provide that guidance. Suffice it to say that the condition of the road as it stands is sufficiently serious for the local authority - or whoever else wishes to take responsibility - to take some action of a nature that will render the road compliant with health and safety regulations. That is a requirement regardless of who does it. I raise this matter on the basis, first of all, of unusually heavy traffic, which has been established, and that the road, to be fair, on both ends is in good condition, even though part of that is rampart road as well. The local authorities long ago achieved a measure of dealing with rampart roads by reinforcing the tarmac, steel, mesh reinforcing or whatever the case may be, so it works very well. The local authority is very familiar with this. It can do it. I ask at this stage that whoever can do it, whoever has to put their finger on the button to start it, start now, if possible, because we cannot wait for an accident. We cannot wait and know that a road is substandard and does not comply with health and safety regulations. If we did not know about it, it would not be too bad, but I travelled across it the other evening and it was appalling. I know I have a bad back, but it is not that bad. It was nearly broken when I got to the end of the road.

I thank the Minister of State for the reply and the Ceann Comhairle for allowing the debate to take place. I ask that whoever wishes to take responsibility for this do it now before it is too late.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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As the Department of Transport has asked me to set out, Kildare County Council is the statutory authority responsible for the Ballagh-to-Timahoe road, as the Deputy will be aware. However, the Department also says that it will advise the council of the Deputy's concerns about the condition of this road, though I suspect that the Deputy has managed to bring those concerns to Kildare County Council by his own good office.

As for the question of managing roads over peat, I did not give the Deputy this additional detail. The Department established recently a working group which includes representatives from local authorities with experience of managing roads over peat to review the existing guidance and to update the recommended approach to rehabilitation, recognising how much more difficult it is and taking into account any new or innovative maintenance methods. However, I think the Department is well aware of the Deputy's concerns and I am sure the county council is also. That is the statutory authority at present.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State.