Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is because of the significant size of County Cork that we do not get the funding that is required. County Cork encompasses one eighth of the geographical area of the State, but we do not have one eighth of the actual budget from the Department when it comes to road restorations. That becomes the key issue when we are trying to maintain roads and get structures put in place to make sure road networks can be maintained. My huge geographical area starts at Ringabella Bay and goes down to Ardgroom. It would take me two and a half hours to drive it any day. We do not get the amount of funding from the Department that we should get. The argument has to be about what we are doing regarding the funding of our local authorities.

The Minister of State mentioned the amount of money the local authorities received. Obviously it is not adequate, because if it were, this issue - which has been around since 2007 when it was first granted and later pulled because of the economy - would be solved. We have another issue in other road networks that I mentioned, such as Bandon. There are other issues in rural road maintenance that need to be looked at as well. We need to see movement on that issue, particularly in Pewterhole Cross. We have been waiting 25 years. The town has totally developed and changed. The population has nearly doubled in that time and the transport implications for that are huge. We need to have funding for this project. It is a very serious issue.