Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I have much sympathy with what Senator Tuffy said concerning tertiary roads. I am concerned, however, that if we were to confine the amendment to the construction, repair and maintenance of tertiary roads, we would be forgetting about many other non-national roads. I am thinking, in particular, of county and regional roads. The Minister of State's Department makes a contribution to the CLÁR programme, about which I spoke yesterday. That programme ensures repairs are carried out on roads that might otherwise not be maintained.

I appreciate that the local roads improvement scheme is not available in every part of the country but it is very important in County Galway as it is responsible for funding the repair of roads leading to bogland. There may not be any houses along these roads but there has to be some way for people to gain access to such farmland. It would be wrong to confine the amendment to tertiary roads when there are so many other types of route that require funding for repairs.