Jim O'Keeffe
Question:6 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for the Environment his views on the effect of a poor standard of roads on the establishment of industry or business; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Road Network Standard.
A number of reports and analyses have recognised that deficiencies in the road network can be a major obstacle to economic development and employment creation. Poor quality roads add to transport costs, increase journey times, reduce travel time reliability and inhibit access to raw materials and markets. Remedying these problems requires a sustained programme of investment, the first phase of which is being implemented under the Operational Programme on Peripherality 1989-1993. Under this programme, £700 million is being invested in the development of the road network, £580 million in the vitally important national primary network and £120 million in other roads of importance to industrial or tourism development. In 1993 alone, over £240 million is available for improvement works on national roads.
The strategy set out in the operational programme has been widely supported, most recently in the Culliton and Moriarty reports, which not alone endorsed the strategy, but also called for an acceleration of the investment programme. The additional support available from the Cohesion Fund from 1993 onwards should make this possible.
Would the Minister agree that the only way to tackle unemployment is to encourage enterprise and that the best way to encourage enterprise is to remove, or at least reduce, the competitive disadvantages of our industrial and business sectors and that one of the major disadvantages is our appalling road network? Can the Minister justify the deterioration in our county road network in recent years? I accept that money is being spent on the national road network, but if we are to promote industry and business in both parts of our island we must maintain our county roads.
There is no doubt that there are real pressures on the Exchequer to meet in full the cost of the maintenance and improvement of county roads. In the years 1990 to 1993 a total of £267 million was invested in regional and county roads and in the years 1983 to 1986 that investment was £57 million. Investment in our county road network is now six times greater because of additional Structural Funding and the Governments' commitment to county roads. I have no hesitation in saying that we do not have the resources to deal with all the problems in regard to our road network, but if this programme is maintained over a period of time many of our roads will be upgraded and improved. This will include the Bandon road on which we are spending £7 million to facilitate Deputy O'Keeffe when travelling to Dublin.
I am delighted that my personal highway is being improved, but my constituency stretches 100 miles west of Bandon. Will the Minister agree that we have no chance of having a proper regional policy here unless there is a determined commitment on behalf of the Government to ensure that our regional and county road network is brought up to an acceptable standard in a reasonable period of time? If we do not achieve that we will condemn the peripheral parts of our island to a continuing diet of unemployment and emigration.
Every device available to us is being utilised in this regard. For example, the INTERREG programme is in operation in Border areas and we also have the supplementary grants scheme and the rural development operational programme. I will endeavour to improve resources in regard to our road network wherever possible as a good road network is important for our tourism, agricultural and industrial sectors. The argument is often made that the reason for the substantial expenditure on our national primary routes is the heavy vehicular traffic to sea ports and airports, but this traffic filters on to those main routes from minor routes. More than 50 per cent of it comes from the county and regional routes. As I have outlined, substantial resources have been allocated for this purpose over the past number of years and, if possible, I will provide additional resources for this area out of the next tranche of Structural Funds.
The poor standard of roads is a major problem in my county, as the Minister is well aware. Question No. 28 could have been taken with this one if the Minister was not trying to shy away from the contents of that question which queried the reduced allocation for county roads in Cavan. However, I do not wish to be parochial on this matter today. I want to look after the interests of Deputies Dukes and O'Keeffe also. We should all work together in an effort to get the Minister to tackle this major problem. Will he agree that tourism is one of the main growth industries in the EC and world today? This country depends heavily on that industry and in that regard our county roads are very important. Many tour operators have refused to penetrate into the north east and north west because of the poor road structure in those areas.
If agriculture, and alternative farm enterprises, are to develop, the road structure must be improved because many processors and people involved in those alternative enterprises are refusing to service the farmers who wish to develop in this area. Will the Minister give a commitment to the allocation of a decent road grant in the coming year to all counties that are hard hit, especially Cavan?
Especially Kildare.
I compliment Cavan County Council on the number of initiatives it has taken to deal with this problem. It is the hardest hit county in the country. This is a long-standing problem and I am delighted the resources of the county council are being used for this purpose as against the picture some years ago when a number of pilot schemes were in operation. While considerable progress has been made, there are still underlying problems that must be dealt with. The grant to Cavan County Council this year on a mileage basis is approximately £1.7 million greater than any other county.
That is not for county roads.
We are looking after Cavan and we will continue to do so.
Brevity must be the key note from now on.
Will the Minister accept that the pothole epidemic which has hit this country in recent years is due mainly to the reduction in resources for road maintenance? This is caused by two factors, namely, the reduction in staff and resources in local authorities and a deliberate decision by the Minister to transfer resources for road maintenance to match funds from the EC for new road construction.
Deputy Gilmore could not be more incorrect in his assumptions.
I am very correct in my assumptions.
The total allocation for regional and county roads in the past four years from Exchequer resources was approximately £267 million.
That was not for maintenance, but for new road construction.
The Deputy should allow the Minister to reply without interruption.
The allocation is five times the resources provided by the Exchequer in the previous four years. There is no evidence to suggest there has been a reduction. In fact, there has been a massive increase in that allocation to meet a problem which started some time ago and for which considerable resources are required. There is no point in playing politics with this issue.
I am not playing politics or distorting the figures.
A major effort is required to upgrade many of those roads and in the next tranche of Structural Funds I will endeavour to build on the progress already made to resolve the problems which I acknowledge still exist in many parts of the country.
Will the Minister answer the simple question that has been asked of him? Why did he reduce the allocation to almost all local authorities for county and regional road maintenance this year? In my county that allocation has been reduced by approximately £250,000 and the overall expenditure is less than £3 million in that category. How can the Minister justify that in view of what the Taoiseach said when agreeing with the then Commissioner MacSharry that sections of the road grant from the EC should be used on minor roads and not on major national and secondary roads as has been the case up to now?
The Deputy will appreciate that difficult budgetary decisions had to be taken this year. Not-withstanding those difficulties, the resources provided for county and regional roads exceed the total amount provided by the Deputy's last Government for that purpose.
That is not true. The Minister is misleading the House.
In regard to the Minister's final remarks, how does he propose to provide funding for new roads when he cannot provide for the maintenance of existing roads? Will he agree that due to the standard of our roads there must be an integrated strategy in relation to other forms of transport, particularly the railway network? Would he not agree that a case can be made in those circumstances for giving one ministry overall responsibility for transport and roads? It could be either the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications or the Department of the Environment.
That is a separate question.
The Deputy has raised a number of questions. When Fianna Fáil — in fairness to the Labour Party, it did likewise — outlined an expansive programme of new investment in roads during the general election campaign it was castigated by both Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats on the issue of where the money would come from. The Government has found as much money as it can for these programmes. The Deputy suggested giving one ministry overall responsibility for transport matters. In this respect she referred to rail and roads, but she did not refer to sea and air.
The Minister has those destroyed.
One can see the kind of complications one would run into in this context.
There will be none left by the time the Minister has finished.
Would the Minister not agree that over the past few years we have been given to hope that money for road improvements would be made available in the future? It seems that money will always be available "next year". I ask the Minister to express his dissatisfaction that some roads in my constituency will only be resurfaced once every 37 years. Does the Minister have any intention of providing extra funding for roads which are now the responsibility of local authorities?
We will be left without a Ceann Comhairle some day as he will be unable to get here.
The allocation for every mile of county and regional roads is approximately £2,200. If a road was not resurfaced for 37 years, approximately £100,000 would be collected by the local authority for that stretch of road.
A Rip Van Winkle approach.
Let us come to Question No. 7, please.