Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)

Cavan is a largely rural county. It is divided into three LEAs, which correspond to the three engineering areas. Speaking to the engineers in these areas, they tell me there are approximately 1,000 km of local road in each area. Based on the funding they have received, when we take out the cost of repairing regional roads in the area and town centres, they have approximately enough to repair 1% to 1.5% of the local road network per year. One engineer told me he had enough to repair 15 km of local road out of almost 1,000 km. At this rate of going, a road repaired this year will not be repaired again for another 100 years. Roads are disintegrating in front of our eyes. When the council goes out to prepare a road for tarring, practically all of the culverts all need to be repaired. A huge amount of work needs to be done even preparing a road because it has been so long since the previous repair.

Cavan is a county that depends largely on agriculture, agribusiness and small and medium-sized enterprises. All of these contribute significantly to the economy, as do ordinary people who pay their road tax and cannot understand why they cannot travel the roads. I hear from carers who find it very difficult to get to the people they are caring for. Their cars are being destroyed. I hear from people delivering meals on wheels. I hear from school bus drivers who cannot travel the roads to get children to school.

The council prepared a comprehensive report, which it sent to the Department. It looked at the funding it has received for roads since 2008. It believes there is a shortfall of €200 million when account is taken of inflation and the fact the cost of construction has risen dramatically, as has the cost of construction materials. The money has not kept in line with inflation. If the council needs to break into land for the development of housing or enterprise, it costs a huge amount of money and this is not being factored in. In order for the council to deal with the housing shortage or ensure there is economic development in the county, more investment is needed.

Something has to be done. People depend on the rural road network. We are not going to be able to put public transport on all our rural roads. People need to be able to get to work, to their farms and everywhere else they need to go. As things are, the roads are just disappearing. It may not be different in other counties but in general in Cavan there is a very large network of rural roads and we need investment in them to ensure we maintain them. Cavan is a drumlin county and it has 365 lakes and a lot of rivers and streams. This needs to be factored in as well but I do not think it is. Has the Department of Transport looked at this and considered increasing funding to ensure the roads do not disintegrate further?