Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I agree with everything that Senator Tully said. I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber today, but I am disappointed that the Minister for Transport is not here. I have been trying to get a debate with him on this issue but he is proving to be elusive. I want to thank the Minister of State for engaging on this important matter.

I want to focus on a matter that affects every commuter, farmer, small business and family in Cavan and Monaghan, that is, the ongoing deterioration of our roads and particularly our rural road network. In my constituency, the condition of the roads is just awful. They are really poor. Anyone driving a tractor, lorry or bus in the area could be forgiven for thinking they are on a boat with all of the rocking and rolling, as well as the potholes, patched parts and sinking roads.

Earlier this year, I welcomed the announcement of an 11% increase in funding for rural roads in Cavan and Monaghan, but the reality is that this increase does not come close to addressing the shortfall in funding between 2008 and 2023. That is where the real problem lies. We experienced a €95 million shortfall in the road development and maintenance in our county during those years. That shortfall has never been replaced. At the moment, our roads start to crumble if we get a little bit of frost or bad weather.

I am sure the Minister of State can appreciate that, due to such a significant drop in funding for 15 years, carrying out maintenance is like papering over cracks. Government investment does not match the increase in costs either. In 2015, local authorities spent €48 million maintaining 361 km of regional roads. In 2024, despite spending €117 million, nearly two and a half times more, the number of kilometres maintained stayed the same. Costs have outpaced investment. This means that every euro buys less road maintenance than before.

How are the roads in Cavan going to improve when fewer kilometres are being maintained? When I started on the council in 2017, we were overlaying and doing maintenance on 23 km of roads in my municipal district. We did 11 km last year. I know that the funding is increasing, but it is not even matching the cost of inflation. Despite funding for the municipal district rising from €1.2 million to €3.5 million, the number of kilometres has reduced. Does the Minister of State understand that we have gone from 23 km down to 11 km a year? That is not good enough. That is a reduction of approximately 50% in the number of kilometres maintained at a time when the wear and tear on our roads has increased dramatically.

We have 1 million more vehicles on the roads today than we had in 2015. That is more cars, SUVs, lorries, and commercial vehicles. It will come as no surprise to the Minister of State that Cavan has the highest NCT failure rate in the country. The failure rate is predominantly due to steering and suspension issues. That is as a result of the poor condition of our roads. It is no coincidence that vehicles are failing where the roads are at their worst.

As Senator Tully said, people pay motor tax, fuel tax and tolls. The very least they should expect is a decent road surface to get to work on. There are roads in my area where school bus drivers, postal workers and delivery people refuse to go down because they are too bad. The Government is literally and politically patching over the problem. We need serious, sustained investment to address the backlog and restore our roads to a safe standard.