I would remind the Senator that the maintenance and upkeep of roads are the responsibility of the local authority and cannot be raised on the Adjournment. He has been allowed the right to raise the other matter.
Adjournment Matter - County Donegal Roads.
I would like to thank you for permitting the motion on the adjournment and I would like to thank the Minister for attending. I had intended raising under Standing Orders the fact that one Member could call this House to a vote and thereby postpone this motion, but that is not what I intend to do. I have in my hand the policy and planning for roads as published by the Department of the Environment for 1985 and I will quote from it in due course.
My main reason for moving this is because of the dire condition of the roads in Donegal in general terms but more particularly as a result of the recent frost. It begs the question as to why the Donegal roads might be worse than they are in any other part of the country. The fact is that they are worse and have been worse for some time. The reason is that we in Donegal get prolonged frost. This year we had a phenomenon known as frost heave. Frost heave occurs when we have 20 or more successive days of sub-zero temperatures. I have witnessed the publicity in the media in general and on television in particular when snow falls in Dublin. When even one flake of snow falls on the mast in Donnybrook or when Wicklow is caught there is an outcry about the travelling conditions and so on.
Look who lives in Donnybrook.
I realise that, but look who does not. We in Donegal suffer severe frost annually. We had at least one month of it this year. We had snow on Christmas Day and we had snow up to the last day of January. Frost heave is a chemical reaction under the roads to a depth of up to two feet. This day week I brought a letter to Dublin from the county engineer in Donegal pointing out the damage that had been caused to the roads in Donegal as a result of frost heave. I am glad that the motion I put down at that time was not taken and that it was accepted today. I should like to quote from the amended report from the county engineer:
Further to previous comments concerning frost damage to roads in County Donegal, while final figures for the damage have not been completed, it is already apparent that they will be in millions rather than hundreds of thousands.
At present, restoration work is proceeding, in accordance with the following strategy:—
(1) to cut out, replace with a suitable depth of suitable materials and provide a surface on the individual stretches badly affected. (2) On completion of this work, further necessary works will be considered in the light of available finance. This necessary work would be the overlaying so that an improvement will be carried out to the frost susceptibility of adjacent portions of the road and also that foundation failures, apart altogether from frost heave, will be rectified.
It is very unlikely, of course, that we will get very far with Stage (2), but from the point of view of general economics, it would seem to me most desirable that when immediate damage due to frost heave has been corrected, other affected areas nearby should be rendered as immune as possible to frost heave in the future.
I understand that the Dept. of the Environment will permit repair work to be charged to the appropriate Maintenance Grants and that they will review the position when repairs have been carried out. However, this will be of no use to Country Roads as there are no Maintenance Grants from the Department funds for these.
This is a situation where Donegal, because of its geographical location has been hit by frost heave much more than any other County. Most Counties have had none at all. This has come on top of very heavy expenditure on snow and ice protective measures and it seems that the accumulative burden of both these is well outside the Council's financial capacity.
The last sentence sums up my reason for putting down this motion. On top of the very heavy expenditure on snow and ice protective measures Donegal County Council has incurred outlay of up to half a million pounds on protective measures this year. I am advised that half of this money can be recouped from the Department in the following year. It is only 50 per cent, and we have the ongoing burden of these protective measures. You do not have them in many other counties in Ireland. I can go on talking about frost heave all night but to little avail. I would like to invite the Minister to do two things. One is to visit Donegal. While I know that there would be no great cost involved for himself, being a Minister, I am prepared to stand the cost of his trip to Donegal, to put him up in my own home or the best hotel in the county and we have many good ones. I am prepared to wine him and dine him in the best restaurants in Donegal, if he stays more than one evening, provided he will travel along the roads which I have referred to. This invitation is standing and I would like the Minister to accept it. Secondly, I would like the Minister to give serious consideration in view of the large numbers of unemployed in our country, to trying a pilot scheme in Donegal whereby his Department or some Department would make moneys available and that those on the live register would avail of an opportunity to take up employment in Donegal working on our roads. I would ask if the Minister would reply directly to both these requests, and my invitation will stand.
In the policy and planning framework for roads, under strategy, it mentions assistance to local authorities by means of block grant for certain work on other roads. I would ask the Minister to give serious consideration to giving block grant assistance to Donegal County Council not just to repair the roads that have been damaged by frost. Those roads must be taken out and totally replaced to standard under paragraph 34. It says that the standards applied to improved roads will be the minimum necessary to provide sufficient capacity for congested traffic flows and to provide a satisfactory level of safety and comfort for road users. I have not been comfortable on a road in Donegal for years. If one uses a bus — it is seldom I do but now and again — when you leave the roads of Northern Ireland and cross Lifford Bridge, not when you are half a mile across but immediately, one notices a deterioration. There is no comfort on our Donegal roads and certainly there is no safety on our Donegal roads. I have seen potholes in which one could have a bath. I am going to pass to the Minister, with the permission of the Acting Chairman, a photograph taken on the main road approaching Milford town in which I am seen standing in a pothole not because I am photogenic, and I am reasonably so, or not because I feel comfortable in waders, but to draw the attention of the public and now the Minister to the type of roads we have. That is the main road leading into Milford town from Letterkenny. That shows precisely what I am talking about. Does the Acting Chairman wish to look at it?
The photograph is a good one.
It is. It says the standard will be the minimum necessary to provide sufficient capacity and to provide a level of safety. We do not have a level of safety. If one does not know the road one does not know where to expect potholes. There is a danger. I have seen potholes so big that trucks had to swerve to avoid them and the swerving can cause serious accidents. I am not sure that we have had any serious accidents as a result of swerving to avoid these potholes, but if we have not had it is by the grace of God and the good driving that is being done. I will cut my contribution short. The county engineer has spelt out our case more clearly today than he did this day week and more clearly than I could. The damage done by the frost heave is apparent. It will be estimated in millions rather than hundreds of thousands. I have issued an invitation to the Minister to come to Donegal to deal with the damage that was done. I thank you, a Chathaoirleach, for giving me this time and I thank the House also. I thank the Minister for attending.
I am sorry we do not have the normal amount of time to reply and to give the facts that I would have liked to have been able to give to the Senator. Can I just say with regard to the trip to Donegal——
On a point of order, I am sorry for interrupting the Minister but I believe that we have the full half-hour.
Acting Chairman
You have ten minutes, Minister.
I am afraid I have to vote in the Dáil at 8.30 p.m. I would just like to say as briefly as I can that I am satisfied Donegal County Council have received a reasonable proportion of finance for road grants over the years. I can assure the Senator that they will continue to receive their fair share of the substantial funds which will now be provided for roadworks over the next three years under the terms of our national plan. In recent years, the council have undertaken a number of major road projects on national roads with the aid of State grants. These include the by-passes of Ballintra/Laghey, which I opened in Donegal recently, Bridgend and Newtowncunningham. If I had time I could mention further major roadworks that are going ahead. A further improvement scheme is scheduled to commence this year between Port Bridge, Letterkenny and Manorcunningham which will also be financed from road grants. In the current year the level of road grant allocations notified to Donegal County Council is exceeded by only two other county councils. In the case of the block grant, which supplements the council's own resources for works on roads other than national roads, Donegal received the highest grant payable to any county council. I am aware of the particular problems caused in Donegal by the recent spell of severe weather which has resulted in frost damage to some roads.
Steps have already been taken to remedy the roads affected following consultation at engineering level between my Department and the county council. The remedial works may be financed from the council's own resources (including rate support grant), from the block grant, and from the appropriate road maintenance grants already notified to the council for 1985. The funds available to me for road grants this year have already been fully allocated and I am not in a position to notify an additional grant for the work. However, I will keep the position under review during the year having regard to the actual cost of the remedial works, progress on the council's overall road programme and expenditure in other areas. Certainly, if I can at all, I will take the opportunity to go to Donegal. I think I will use my own transport and the facilities that are provided for me to make that visit. I spent a number of holidays there during the seventies.
I would like to return to the area and see the problems for myself, but at the moment we are busy and I cannot say when I will be able to do that, Senator. I do assure you we will make that visit and we will take a look at the situation on the ground. Thank you.
The Seanad adjourned at 8.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 20 February 1985.