Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)
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I wish everybody a happy new year.

I welcome the Minister. This matter relates to Four Masters Bridge and Lennox Bridge which connect Kinlough in north County Leitrim to Bundoran and Ballyshannon in County Donegal. Lennox Bridge is a single lane bridge that has been in place for many years. It is cracked and the most recent head-on collision on it happened last weekend. On this occasion there were relatively minor injuries, but it is one of the worst roads in the country. Urgent action by the Government is required to upgrade it to a two lane bridge and make it safe.

Four Masters Bridge is further downstream on the River Drowse which separates the two counties. It was badly damaged by the recent flooding and is unsafe. It is a protected structure and the road is closed. Approximately 4,000 crossings take place each day on Lennox Bridge as members of the local communities go about their daily business in Ballyshannon and Bundoran in doing the shopping, commuting to schools and engaging in other administrative tasks. Following the closure of Four Masters Bridge, the number of crossings has increased. However, as I have illustrated, accidents occur frequently and, sadly, a fatal accident may not be far away. As we witnessed in Leenane, County Mayo, these are old bridges that could be swept away in future flooding. This could cut the communities in question off completely.

I am not aware of plans for the immediate upgrade of the two bridges. I have contacted the managers of Donegal and Leitrim County Councils in the hope they will urgently petition the Minister for immediate funds and support in this regard. It is a critical issue in this part of the country, not least in the context of the tourism industry. The Drowse fishery is important. I spoke to the owner and he has said this time of year is as crucial to this part of the country as 12 July is to some in Northern Ireland in terms of tourism revenue. People are trying to catch the first salmon of the season which has yet to be caught.

When there are crises in this country, whether they are related to refugees, flooding, homelessness and so on, regardless of the financial constraints on Departments, the Government can come up with funds when it is forced to do so. All of these causes are worthy of Government support and moneys can always be found to attempt to solve these difficulties, but the communities of north Leitrim and south Donegal are no less deserving. These two bridges have been left to the elements for too long. The integrity of Four Masters Bridge has been seriously damaged and it is closed, while Lennox Bridge is a single-lane, accident prone crossing point. I appeal to the Minister to do all he can to liaise with both councils to come up with an urgent remedy for both crossings.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I offer the Senator and the House best wishes for the new year.I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to perhaps give a wider perspective on what has happened to the transport infrastructure across the country. I will also be doing so in the Dáil this afternoon.

As the Senator is aware, the most extensive impact of the weather to date for the transport sector has been on the road network and within that I include the kinds of bridges to which the Senator refers. It has caused very serious disruption to daily life in many areas and led to the cutting off in some cases of small communities and households from others. The priority of local and national agencies to date has been public safety and there has been ongoing communication between local authorities, State bodies and residents in affected areas to ensure people were aware of the safety messages that issued relating to travelling in flooded areas and road closures or diversions. An Garda Síochána and local authority staff, along with other relevant agencies, have worked closely to ensure that warning signs have been put in place, diversion routes organised and signposted, with information and advice made available to the public via websites, social media and local radio. The Road Safety Authority has been very active over the past month in supporting and disseminating safety measures for all road users.

With regard to the scale of damage and responding to the issue raised by Senator MacSharry, local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, have advised my Department that it is not possible to get a comprehensive view of damage to road pavements until the floods fully recede and investigations and assessments are carried out. Bridges damaged as a result of flooding and storms, including bridges mentioned by the Senator, will need to be inspected, with a detailed assessment of the damage undertaken. TII has engineering consultants on a bridge framework available to commence inspections once flooding has subsided. Underwater inspection is a specialist area and only a limited number of consultants have the capability to undertake such inspections. The chief executive of TII has written to local authorities offering the services of the framework consultants if there are non-national road bridges of concern that they consider need to be inspected. In certain cases, it may be months before full information is available on the cost of repairs whereas in other cases, where water levels have receded more quickly, the timeframe will be shorter. In any event, my officials and those in TIl will engage with local authority officials to minimise the timeframe associated with critical repair works.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has been taking the lead in responding to the immediate needs of local authorities arising from the storms and flooding and provided funding to local authorities to allow them to deal quickly with the clean-up and measures needed to protect public safety. That Department has also sought submissions from local authorities setting out both the estimated short-term costs and the costs related to damage to infrastructure, including transport. This is to give a full picture of the full cost, and I am working on putting that cost together.

So far, 25 of the 28 local authorities have reported on their estimated infrastructure damage costs and my Department is now reviewing these estimates. The capital budget for my Department for this year is very tight and I have asked my officials as a matter of urgency to assess areas - such as those referred to by Senator MacSharry - where funding can be reprioritised or reallocated in order to deal with the consequences of the storms. The scale of the damage incurred and the overall cost will be very large and require a response across the Government and I am working with Ministers on that. The infrastructure mentioned by the Senator is an example of the kind of work that I accept we will need to respond to in the coming months.

Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. Sadly, that was a very generic response and it could probably apply to most counties in Ireland with respect to flooding damage and so on. I am disappointed the Minister did not say that he has spoken to officials in the Department and that they will engage with the county managers of both counties to prioritise this. As the Minister stated, the community has effectively been cut off.There is awful flood damage throughout the country and I commend all the services that are undertaking great work to address it. The Four Masters Bridge and Lennox Bridge in north Leitrim-south Donegal must be prioritised. I hope when the Minister goes back to his office today, he will speak to the Secretary General of the Department and ask him to contact both county managers.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising the issue with me. He is correct to say that I have given him a national overview of the situation. I am sure the Senator will appreciate that while this is a very important project to the Senator and the community on whose behalf he is raising the issue, my challenge is that we now have hundreds of these issues throughout the country. I am working within Government to come up with a plan to allow us to respond to that and I will certainly consider the bridges to which the Senator has referred.