asked the Minister for the Environment if he will ask that a meeting be arranged between Dublin Corporation and the Dublin Gas Company to urgently bring about a more efficient arrangement for handling both road and path excavations and reinstatement in view of the undue delays and extreme inconvenience being caused at the present time.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Co-ordination of Excavations.
4.
Dublin Corporation has the primary responsibility for arrangements in relation to road openings in Dublin city. The recently-established Dublin Transport Authority has specific powers to issue directions to statutory undertakers and local authorities in this regard. I understand that a meeting was held recently involving representatives of the corporation and the Dublin Gas Company with a view to improving arrangements for the reinstatement of road openings and that the Gas Company, in association with the corporation, is now undertaking a comprehensive survey on an area basis of road openings which have not been permanently reinstated with a view to early completion of outstanding works.
Will the Minister comment on the present arrangements which make it financially remunerative and act as an incentive for utilities such as the Dublin Gas Company not to hand back to the local authority road works they have completed because they would then be asked to pay the bill? Is the Minister aware that a sum of the order of £1.5 million is owing to Dublin Corporation by the Dublin Gas Company for works which in some cases should have been handed back a long time ago? Will the Minister accept that the crying need is not so much for co-ordination but for a change in the incentive system which rewards those who hold on indefinitely to roadworks they have finished? Does the Minister recognise that as a problem?
It is a matter for each local authority to order their affairs in such a way that they do not have large outstanding bills for lengthy periods. The specific provision under section 40 of the Dublin Transport Authority Act will materially improve the position.
I will not go into the area of co-ordination. Will the Minister accept that it is not a matter for the local authority to devise a system under which companies like the Dublin Gas Company will hand back, more rapidly than they do now, inconvenient and expensive roadworks? Such concerns are rewarded for those delays implicitly by not having to pay until a later date. The problem is that that is not a matter for local authorities.
I should like to remind the Deputy that section 40 of the DTA Act gives the authority power to give directions to statutory concerns and local authorities as to the period during which, the time at which and the manner in which roadworks can be carried out. In using their power the authority will have regard to the need not only for co-ordination with the execution of roadworks but the need to minimise traffic disruption, the urgency of the roadworks and the extra costs involved by the direction. The DTA will have a specific role to play now in regard to the exercise of their powers under section 40.