Vol. 490 No. 5
15 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the position in relation to the county roads initiative; when it is expected that all county roads will be brought up to standard; the estimated total cost of achieving this objective; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10604/98]
The restoration programme for county roads is fully on track for completion by 2005, that is, within the original ten year timeframe. As I indicated at the launch of the non-national road grants in February 1998, the total national bill to eliminate the backlog of surface restoration and road reconstruction works is estimated at £755 million from the beginning of 1998. This sum, subject to ongoing adjustment for inflation, is accordingly required to complete the restoration programme.
The 1998 provision for restoration improvement works stands at a record £94.7 million compared with £70 million in 1997 and will fully maintain progress in relation to the timeframe and budgetary requirements of the programme.
I thank the Minister for his reply. Has he any mechanism to update the Ove Arup report outlining the total work to be done in restoring non-national roads, which he would have received at the end of last year? Is there a constant evaluation of road conditions? I am particularly conscious of the horrendous weather which most counties have endured through this very wet winter. Can we depend on the data which was gathered many months ago to be the definitive indicator of county road needs or is there an ongoing evaluation to ensure that the 2005 deadline is achieved?
There will obviously be a need to continue to monitor the needs of the programme. The Deputy, who as Minister commissioned this report, recognised the need to have at least a baseline study from which to work, but it is the intention of the Department that we will continue to monitor needs on an annual basis. We will continue on the basis of submissions made to us from local authorities, which are good at keeping us informed of their needs, as the Deputy knows from his experience in the Department. Through the use of the rolling five year programmes, initiated a number of years ago by the Deputy, we will be monitoring that and using it as a yardstick also. I accept the Deputy's point that there is a need to monitor continuously to ensure that the programme is kept up to date and that any necessary extra expenditures are provided for. I intend to do that.
Has the Minister put anything in train to ensure that local authorities contribute a reasonable portion of their own resources to match State grants? Is there a disincentive for local authorities to come up with such moneys? In other words, are those which do not allocate such moneys still getting the maximum possible grant?
With regard to the particular difficulties endured at individual locations as a result of storms, will there be a separate fund or separate recognition of the needs of local authorities where catastrophic damage has been done?
I have made it clear in letters to the local authorities that I expect that the own resources element of any roads funding will continue and increase at least in line with inflation. I have underlined that. While I have not spelt this out, I have the opportunity now to spell it out. It is something I have checked and taken up in a number of local authorities on my visits. Where my information was that they had decreased the amount of money, I made it quite clear that if they start reducing the amounts of own resources I will start reducing the amount which they receive from the Department on a pro rata basis. I am making that quite clear. I do not want a recurrence of the previous situation. The Deputy might have had some experience — his predecessor certainly did — of instances where increased funding was allocated to local authorities and they reduced their own funding almost proportionately. Local authorities are committed, by and large, to an improvement in their county roads structure and they must provide some of the funding themselves. I do not want to see that diminishing. Anywhere I find it is diminishing, they will suffer accordingly.
With regard to storm damage, it depends on one's definition of catastrophic. We occasionally see catastrophic storm damage in continental Europe. There was some serious storm damage in various parts of this country over the past couple of years. However, it has been the practice, one which I have continued, that local authorities hold a portion of the roads allocation they receive for unusual circumstances as a contingency.
It is never done.
They may never do it, but I decided — again my predecessors followed this practice — to allocate all of the money because there is a relatively short period of time in which local authorities can spend it. It would not be wise to start taking some of the money which we are allocating and laying it to one side in case something happens. I urge local authorities to have some money left for contingencies such as this, but I do not propose to lay aside any special money for those kinds of circumstances.
I would ask the co-operation of Deputy Howlin. I will not be able to take Question No. 16 in priority time unless I get it in before 3.41 p.m.
What proportion of the £755 million, which the Minister indicated the restoration programme will cost, is he expecting from the local authorities themselves and how is that to be apportioned?
We used the report, to which we referred earlier, to allocate the resources this year. We used the previous year's allocations as the baseline for that and I am not talking about specific percentages or proportions for each local authority. What we are trying to ensure is that local authorities will not in real terms provide less out of their own resources for county roads than they did previously. It is not a set proportion. That would not be a good way to go.
