Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I agree with my colleagues who called for a debate on the increases in VHI charges which many people who avail of its services have seen over the past week. We should have an early debate on that. It is causing concern to many people.

I want to refer to the state of our roads and the cold weather before and during Christmas, and the difficulties associated with that. I refer in particular to my local authority area which was not able to access salt from the national supply which was to be provided by the National Roads Authority. As we all know, the NRA ran out of salt prematurely because it did not foresee the cold weather. I want a debate on this issue because it was disgraceful that the NRA did not link up with Met Éireann and have the salt supplies which were required all over the country pre-ordered and pre-stocked instead of waiting for supplies to come in and local authorities such as mine having to revert to using sand and grit on the roads instead of salt. We do not know when the cold snap will come back. It may return in a number of weeks or the end of the year but we do know it will return at some stage.

As a result of the frost and snow and salt and grit being used on the roads many of the national primary, secondary, regional and local roads across Donegal have been torn apart. We need additional funding to be made available by the NRA to local authorities. It is not fair. We can blame local authorities for their misgivings and shortcomings but they have to be provided with the resources to repair the roads. The roads on the islands, such as those on Tory Island and Arranmore, have been torn apart. I ask the Leader to have an early debate with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, and if possible the chief executive officer of the NRA, Fred Barry - I do not know if it is possible to bring him into the House - on the issue. I hope such a debate can take place next week before the weather changes again.

We have a very famous man in Donegal called Michael the postman or the weatherman. I spoke to him at a constituency clinic last night. He suggested that the snow could return towards the end of the month. We should have a debate before that happens.