Since this debate commenced in the other House there have been calls for an integrated national transport policy. I understand the Minister has responded negatively to this proposal while recognising the need for a co-ordinated approach between various departments. He claims many practical difficulties would have to be overcome before one authority could take responsibility for seaports, airports, county roads, regional roads, national roads and transport policy generally.
We are facing a serious situation over the next couple of years because of the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994. This has to be the most significant event in European social and economic history. For the first time a land mass on the periphery of Europe will be joined with the body of Europe which will, in effect, leave us as the only island member State in the European Community, with the obvious disadvantages that will bring.
I had informal discussions with Ministers on trade, marketing and transport particularly since I became spokesperson in this House on transport and communications. The response of those Ministers was that the opening of the Channel Tunnel should be considered in an exclusively positive light. That view is misplaced. There will be significant benefits to be gained from quick, easy and direct access to Europe for freight and tourist traffic. If there is easier access going east, then obviously there is easier access coming west.
However, the argument then falls down as anyone who has taken a car ferry or a freight liner through any Irish port will know. This applies especially to what I would call the main corridor between this country and Britain, the Dublin-Holyhead route, and to a lesser extent the Rosslare-Pembroke route in the context of freight traffic. I recently took the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead. It was a pleasant journey and when I got to the other side I headed south-east. This is the direction most of the commercial traffic takes to get to the European network — the A5 out of Holyhead, across the Isle of Anglesea to Betws-y-Coed and on through Llangollen, eventually joining the main motorway east of Shrewsbury.
This is a route that would tax even the most intrepid explorers. It is a winding, twisting and potentially dangerous route in some places where it might be safer to walk. Yet there is no indication that the UK Government intends to develop a motorway route from the main access port from Ireland to the UK and on to Europe.
I welcome the development of our road network, with special reference to the Euroroute from Wexford to Belfast, which will be a tremendous advantage to our commercial and tourism sectors. The Roads Authority will oversee this development involving the spending of significant sums of Structural Fund money over the next seven years on the further upgrading of our regional and primary road network. However, I am concerned that there does not seem to be an awareness in Government that, with the imminent opening of the Channel Tunnel, we will be at a distinct disadvantage in the short to medium term. I hope the National Roads Authority will recognise that and that in its deliberations on prioritising the allocation of funds over the next seven years — which is part of its remit — it will put more emphasis on regional development than on ring-roads or urban development.
Far be it from me to criticise the significant developments around the capital city over the past five to six years, but anyone who has business in Dublin, be it for political, commercial or leisure purposes, and who lives in the west or north-west must recognise that the outer ring-road, the Western Parkway, the northern route and more recently the southern route through Shankill, are a boon.
However, let us look at the road network from the perspective of County Leitrim, my own county. If one looks at the national routes on a map of Ireland there is a significant amount of red, the colour which designates national primary routes, concentrated from the east outwards. However, the further north one looks the less red one sees to the extent that County Leitrim and a number of Border counties are, and have been, isolated from the great development of our road network over the past few years. County Leitrim has the shortest mileage of national primary routes in the country. There is the route which runs through the coastal area of Tullaghan on the Sligo-Bundoran road and also the N16 route, through Manorhamilton, Glenfarne, and on to Enniskillen — I intend to refer to that route later. Country Leitrim has the lowest number of secondary roads. Consequently, most of our road network has to be sourced out of local authority funding. The same is true of a number of Border counties.
It would be a job well done if I were to do nothing in this House but reiterate the demand — it has gone beyond a request — from those living in the Border counties for a more equitable share of the Structural Funds designated by the Department of the Environment for road development, and if that plea were to encourage decision makers, particularly the new National Roads Authority, to spend more resources in that area.
The greatest difficulty facing the Border regions and the north-west is access. We are constantly told the biggest difficulty facing the country in terms of tourism and economic development is access. It should not be too difficult to marry the two priorities; the national priority of better, more direct access by air, sea and road, and more direct and easy access to the regions.
There is a perception that the first tranche of European Structural Funds was designated almost exclusively to national primary routes and to routes on which there was a heavy volume of traffic to the detriment of the regional and county road networks. I believe that perception is accurate. I hope, and this is the impression I get from the Minister and his Department, that the second tranche of European Structural Funds will be reoriented so that a greater proportion of the money will be spent on regional and county road development.
As the Cathaoirleach and any other Member of this House involved in local authorities will know, there is a lobby currently pressing for 10 per cent of Structural Funds to be devoted exclusively to regional and county road development. This lobby is representative of elected members of local authorities and should not be ignored.
I am delighted to concede that the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Smith has been and continues to be responsive to increased demands from elected local authority members for more resources at local level. However, the Minister will not have direct control over the National Roads Authority. Thus, decisions as to how scarce European resources matched by our own even scarcer resources are to be used will be made by a group of appointed individuals with no real awareness of local and regional needs. Their approach to the roads network will be a global one. Statistics, including some provided by the Minister, indicate that Irish roads are used by a high percentage of the population. This calls for a more imaginative and creative response than simply highlighting national primary roads and investing more money in them.
We inherited a road network built in the early to mid 1800s to cater for a population of seven to eight million people. Unreasonable demands on local authorities to tarmac or repair county roads have created enormous tensions at local level. These demands are unreasonable because the road network, built for eight million people, is now serving three million only so it is inevitable that some roads will not receive adequate attention.
Some argue that every citizen has the right to live on a good road which is adequately maintained and surfaced and should not have to worry that the value of a car might be reduced by a purchasing garage because of the poor condition of local roads. I am aware of those arguments and fully support them. As resources are limited, however, I favour giving priority to road development at national primary level and then working down to county level.
In spite of the substantial amount of money available for road and infrastructural development our county road network has only in recent years begun to improve to an appreciable degree. This improvement is a direct result of the reallocation of resources by Fianna Fáil Administrations from 1987 onwards. It is a sad commentary that up to that time no Government, including the previous Coalition, from the mid-1950s onwards regarded road development as a national priority. There was a view that spending money on roads was wasteful and that it should be spent instead on more fruitful areas. In the 1990s we are reaping that whirlwind.
There is no point going back over 30 or 40 years of misconceptions rather than mismanagement in relation to the importance of road development to the national social and economic fabric. We need to look towards the next six to seven years when we will see, as all commentators have stated, the last major input of European funding for per-ipherality into Ireland. It is vital that we spend these European funds well.
On the issue of the state of Border roads Ireland is treated as a peripheral European nation and the Border region is a peripheral region within a peripheral country which has its own cultural and unique difficulties. I use the word "culture" because those of us who travel regularly across the frontier between North and South are constantly told by all sections of the Northern community — it is the one subject on which they are all united — that the South, or the Free State as they call it, would be a wonderful country if its roads were better. I believe this comment is validly made, particularly along the Border regions. When one travels to the South from the North one notices an immediate drop in road standards from Louth through to Donegal. Here, some areas are worse than others. Cavan and Leitrim roads are particularly bad. One cannot travel across the Border from Fermanagh to Leitrim due to Army road closures but that is another issue.
Given all the talk over the last ten years of developing tourism, improving infrastructure and attracting economic development through the location of industry in Border regions and the north-west, I cannot understand why greater emphasis has not been placed on improving cross-Border roads. As far as I can gather the only funding available for the development of cross Border roads is under the inter regional programme and this programme is proceeding so slowly due to limited resources that I shudder to think when it will be fully completed. I do not think we will be around to see that. I ask the Minister therefore, to make a special case for the Border regions, not for parochial or selfish reasons but for sound economic and social ones.
I plead for the further development and upgrading of Irish sea ports. During the last week to ten days the Minister, when announcing the implementation of the Culliton report recommendations stated that sea ports will come under the control of commercial companies with State involvement which will be set up for this purpose. I welcome this development. For too long there has been a school of thought, which used to be called the Doheny and Nesbit school of economics, that everything in the State sector has failed while everything in the private sector is wonderful. I do not share that point of view. Irish State bodies have been efficient and exemplary in the main, creating jobs and wealth for the country. I welcome the proposal to place seaports under some degree of State control.
I raise the issue of sea ports in the context of roads because I hope the development of the Euro-route from Rosslare to Belfast and link roads from it will move apace. There was a suggestion in recent days that there should be a motorway development from the south-east across to the south-west. This would help to speed traffic to and from Rosslare. Why is Larne receiving an inordinate share of Irish outbound freight? I think it is for purely economic reasons and has nothing to do with the pleasant scenery or excellent roads around Larne. There must be a reason people from this part of the country export their goods via Larne. Perhaps the answer is that we have not developed our port facilities. I am glad it will be within the remit of the National Roads Authority to develop a better road structure from our ports.
The trans-European routes have been set down by the European Commission as a blueprint for the future development of major routes. The Euro-route is one of these. Another route that has been recommended by the Commission is the N16, which runs through most of the northern part of County Leitrim. This route, in the context of Larne and the north-east, carries a considerable amount of freight traffic. There has been a considerable increase in the amount of tourist traffic on that road. Belfast international airport, has developed its services over the last few years and is attracting an increasing number of passengers many of whom come to Belfast for tourism and leisure rather than for economic reasons and an increasing number of these visitors now travel outside Belfast. They are using Belfast as a conduit to the North and, hopefully, coming south. Consequently, the upgrading of the N16 route should be a priority for the New National Roads Authority.
The N16 route is listed as a trans-European route under the most recent recommendations of the Commission. Unfortunately, the Commission can only make recommendations native to governments. The Euro 1 route was originally recommended to the Government who accepted it and have been putting resources into it. I ask the Minister as a priority, to ensure that this Authority would look at providing increased resources for trans-European routes, specifically the N16. This route goes through Sligo and it would link the developing road network in Galway and Mayo and provide strong, clear and direct link between North and South. God knows, we need better access to our separated brethren in the North. The condition of roads in the Border areas has been an inhibiting factor in both sides of the Irish community getting to know each other better. There is a social as well as an economic reason for improving the roads.
It would be remiss of me not to call for the upgrading of the county road which runs through County Leitrim. This road runs from Carrick-on-Shannon, the border with Roscommon through Drumshanbo to Drumkeerin, Manorhamilton and Kinlough into Bundoran. It is an alternative route for traffic travelling to the north-west. If I were to ask my colleagues, on both sides of the House, how they would travel from Dublin to Sligo, they would inevitably tell me that they would go from Carrick-on-Shannon to Boyle and over to Curlews into Sligo. Anybody who comes from that area will tell you when you come to Carrick-on-Shannon to turn right into Drumshanbo, down into Drumkeerin, Manorhamilton and Kinlough. This cuts about 20 miles off the journey. Most people do not use that route because looking at the map, one would get the impression it is little more than a dirt track. I appreciate that parts of it are winding but the road surface is a credit to Leitrim County Council.
The roads in Leitrim are a credit to successive local administrations. We are proud of our county road network. Of course, there are major difficulties, as in all counties, but the main road artery through the county is good. The economic development of County Leitrim and the north-west generally would be best served by an upgrading of this road to secondary road status. This would mean Exchequer resources would be provided. According to the last census, County Leitrim has a population of 25,000 and the business rate applies to 700 people. The reliance on central Exchequer funding for the maintenance of services in County Leitrim has reached an unhealthy level. Consequently, I am not adopting a begging bowl attitude. It would be in the interests of not only the county but of the region and of the county if that road were to be upgraded. I hope the National Roads Authority will take note of this and realise that it is a serious priority for Leitrim County Council and business and tourism interests in the country.
The same applies to the stretch of road which runs north from Carrick-on-Shannon through Ballinamore to Swanlinbar in County Cavan. This stretch of road has taken on a new significance because of the imminent reopening of the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell canal and the development of ancillary facilities in that region.
I wish to refer specifically to the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell Canal development and the Slieve Russell Hotel outside Ballyconnell. Seán Quinn's development is a marvellous commitment to a rural area. I discussed this development with him recently and it was interesting that he did not rate the questionable state of the roads around Ballyconnell as an inhibiting factor in the development of his business. However, he did say that if the road network were improved to enable better access to County Cavan and west Leitrim, it would improve his occupancy rate. Perhaps, on hearing this, any potential entrepreneurs would look at the imaginative response of Seán Quinn to providing a valuable, important and excellent leisure facility in a country which some entrepreneurs would label Hicksville, Ireland. Seán Quinn has proved that it can be done. I hope other entrepreneurs will take note and realise that, while our road network may not be on a par with some parts of the south or east, developments are taking place and local authorities and public representatives with tourism and economic interests are committed to improving the infrastructure.
The single, biggest difficulty facing this country and the part of the country I live is lack of access. The statutory development of the National Roads Authority is a significant milestone in the development of our infrastructure. I welcome the setting up of the National Roads Authority but I ask that its activities be monitored. I hope this House will have an opportunity to debate the activities of the National Roads Authority on an ongoing basis, particularly as in a sense, it is operating outside the direct remit of the Department of the Environment and local authorities. For the first time, the relationship between the Department and the local authorities has been broken hence public accountability is even more important. I hope the upgrading of the main artery in Leitrim — the T54 and T53 — and the European Commission recommended that the N16 be sourced financially to bring it up to motorway status over the next ten to 15 years will be implemented.
