Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The House will welcome the announcement by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport that the link-up of the Luas lines in Dublin will go ahead. I am sure, however, many businesses and those of us within the city centre area will bemoan the disruption once construction starts.

While that is good news, it is tempered by the statement made earlier this morning at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications by Mr. Cormac O'Rourke, the chairman designate of the National Roads Authority and Railway Procurement Agency, which are being merged. I raised the issue of ongoing road maintenance requirements on our new national motorways, apart even from the regional and national roads. He revealed there will be a shortfall of ¤100 million in the maintenance budget. This is a serious issue if it continues unchecked because that shortfall could rise to ¤200 million next year. Those of us who have been here long enough know that during the recession in the 1980s, one of the most damaging factors in infrastructural terms was the loss of revenue to local authorities for the maintenance of local and regional roads. It haunted us for the next ten or 15 years across two Administrations. We were all involved.

I know the Minister is coming in but I am directing my comments not so much at him through the Leader, but at Government Members of the House so they can raise the issue at the meetings of their parliamentary parties. Most of us have been involved in local authorities and know the severe damage as a result of the reduction in the budget for road maintenance. If this is going to happen to a road network we can be proud of, and which is an important link in our trading capacity, the issue must be raised so the necessary money is made available to the NRA, despite the current severe difficulties.