Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)

The Minister of State pointed out that the funding had increased by 25% since 2021, but so have the costs, so the increase is probably negligible. The council does prioritise roads, but it has to spend money on other aspects as well. It cannot put everything into roads. Repairing 1% to 1.5% of the rural road network per year is just not sufficient. It has to be addressed or we will not be able to travel on the roads if this continues on.

The Minister of State says that Exchequer funding disincentivises councils from putting in their own funds. They put in whatever funds they can into the roads. They try to be as imaginative as possible to get the funding together to spend on the roads, but it is just not possible. I understand that regional roads have to be repaired. They carry the most traffic and that is important, and no one is arguing about that, but it is no good if you cannot access your rural road to get to your regional road. It will not encourage investment in the county. As it is, we are a county without a rail service and with a very poor public bus service. We need to invest in our roads to ensure that people can travel on them safely and without additional cost or damage to their cars.