Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome our colleague and friend, the Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett, to the House. I welcome the daughter of the Minister of State, Heidi, to the Chamber. She is here doing work experience. I hope you have a very enjoyable time with us. Thank you for being here. You can be very proud of your mum and the contribution she is making to Irish political life. Céad míle fáilte.

Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State. It is great to have her here to discuss the issue of Pewterhole Cross in Kinsale.

I asked the Minister for Transport for an update on the funding request from Cork County Council to carry out necessary upgrade works at Pewterhole Cross in Kinsale. This is a significant issue for the residents of Kinsale. It is a thriving town that has seen huge population growth in the past few years. Kinsale is now the second largest town in the constituency.

One passes through Pewterhole Cross on the outskirts of Kinsale when driving on the Cork to Kinsale Road. It is a junction of the R600 where the road meets Charleville and Charlesfort on the left and the industrial estate on the right. The crossroads and junction are a significant issue for the residents of Kinsale. The majority, if not all, of those heading towards Cork have to go through the crossroads, including the blind junction. There are huge traffic volumes. We are trying to find a solution to the problem.

Unfortunately, the proposed solution goes back many years. In 2007 the proposal was originally pulled. It was one of the last projects ever pulled from a funding stream. The project was supposed to have been completed in 2007, but has been on and off the list ever since. The latest update from Cork County Council regarding this issue does not give me much hope. Applications for funding were made in 2022 and 2023. The council has now applied for funding of €50,000 to move forward with the appraisal assessment work. Unfortunately, the money has not been allocated for 2024.

How can we get a significant funding stream in place to make sure the crossroads can be dealt with? We need to make sure it is safe. At the moment, unfortunately, it is not safe. When we knock on the doors and talk to people, they tell us the economy and everything else is going well, but an issue like this is significant for the people of Kinsale. The majority of the residents of Kinsale pass through this junction twice a day and need a solution.

We are trying to get the project on the list for appraisal work so it can move forward to the design stage and we can then make sure we can deliver the works. The project is 20 years in the making. The town has developed and changed like no other town in Cork South-West. It is a thriving town. This piece of infrastructure is badly required.

I refer to other towns in Cork South-West. The Bandon bypass needs a funding stream to be put in place. The project will take traffic out of the town, which will benefit the entire area. Bandon is the gateway to west Cork. At the moment, the majority, if not all, of lorries in the area have to go down south Main Street and past my office. We need funding for key projects that would mean so much for people.

Councillor Marie O'Sullivan in Kinsale continually raises this issue and calls for updates and funding to be made available. Her campaign needs to be acknowledged. It is about trying to make sure that we get movement. I know we are in the last dying days of a Government, but we need to make sure there is movement on this for the residents of Kinsale.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I thank the Acting Chair. I thank the Senator for the question. I am here on behalf of the Minister for Transport.

As the Senator is aware, as outlined in the 2024 regional and local roads programme, the Government is strongly committed to protecting the existing road network. This network is fundamental to connecting people and places across the country. It facilitates business, education, tourism, healthcare, agriculture and the provision of critical services and activities. At this point, it is important to highlight that the improvement and maintenance of the regional and local road network is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the Roads Act 1993.

Works on these roads are funded by from the council's own resources and are supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also matter for the local authority. Ireland's regional and local road network spans over 96,000 km and, therefore, requires significant funding to ensure it remains fit for purpose, safe and resilient. As such, this year €650 million was allocated to regional and local roads.

On 31 May this year, the Department of Transport announced additional funding of €30 million for local authorities through restoration and improvement grants following persistent rainfall over the winter and spring. Of this, Cork was in receipt of over €86 million to fulfil the council's statutory responsibilities for maintaining regional and local roads. This €86 million is intended to supplement realistic contributions from the local authority's own resources. Due to the vast scale of the network, the Department of Transport employs an array of grant types to target investment across the regional and local network.

Within the budget available, State grant funding is allocated on as fair and an equitable basis as possible to ensure that all local authorities are in receipt of funds to maintain their networks. The allocation of the three biggest Exchequer grant types for regional and local roads is based on the length of the road within a local authority's area, with additional weighting based on contributing traffic factors in specific areas.

This approach also means that while central Government is supplying significant funding, we acknowledge that local authorities are best placed to make determinations for their own areas for maximum delivery of results.Indeed, the initial selection and prioritisation of maintenance and renewal work is a matter for each local authority. There is flexibility within the State grant programmes for councils to direct resources to address specific problems as identified on their networks as they see fit in aspects such as safety. Any road improvement project proposed by local authorities for consideration under the specific grant programme are assisted by the Department on a case-by-case basis. All projects put forward by local authorities for consideration must comply with the requirements of the public spending code and the Department of transport's capital appraisal framework.

Given the limited funding available for regional and local road improvement works, it is important for local authorities to prioritise projects within their overall area of responsibility with these requirements in mind. Cork County Council has been allocated more than €3 million for six projects under the 2024 specific improvement grant programme, in line with the priorities identified by the council. Unfortunately, Pewterhole Cross is not one of the projects currently being funded.

In summary, the Department and the Minister recognise the importance of the funding provided to local authorities for the renewal and protection of the road network. This funding helps to maintain a functioning, safe interconnected network that facilitates thousands of people in their day-to-day activities. In the case of the specific improvement grant, the Department has allocated funding to schemes in line with the priorities identified by Cork County Council through its application process.

Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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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.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I thank Senator Lombard. I do not disagree that it is a serious issue, but the State grant funding is allocated on a fair and equitable basis road on road length. Yes, Cork is a vast county. It has a lot of road network and gets a proportionate amount based on that compared to other counties that have less of a road network and get a lesser amount. It is done on a fair and equitable basis.

Notwithstanding that, there are opportunities within the council for Cork County Council to identify the road project the Senator has highlighted and the issues with that. Pressure needs to be put on Cork County Council to deliver on that, and it then will put the pressure on the Department. That does not fix it in the here and now, but that is the route of travel from now on. If this is important, which it is and I am not discounting it, pressure must be put on the council to identify it as one to put on its list for next year. That is the advice I have. This is the same in many other councils across the country, but priorities have to be made. Councils make priorities and the Department makes priorities based on some of that advice.