The road plan will, we hope, do as much to avoid wasteful expenditure as to ensure a good road system designed to carry the traffic which we anticipate when the war is over. We classified our roads on the basis of what we thought the increase in vehicular traffic was likely to be, using the increase that has occurred between the years 1928 and 1939. That again is to some degree speculative. When motor cars, parts of motor cars, tyres, petrol and oil are in full supply, it is quite possible that motor traffic will not increase at the same rate from that particular year for the next ten years as the recorded increase from 1928 to 1939. We shall have to take due account of that. We cannot be reckless in formulating our road plan but we can at least give advice to county surveyors and give them the framework of a plan which we hope to follow, as far as possible, and which we can adapt if necessary if we see that our prognostications are not in fact correct. I have great faith that when the surveyors receive our advice and instructions in regard to the use of the plan the result will be a considerable saving of money to the ratepayers and to the taxpayers per mile of road constructed.
I may add that it is not going to be an easy task. It is very easy to formulate a road plan and very difficult to apply it in practice. It will, for example, enable us, when allocating the Road Fund to each county, to take due account of all the circumstances of a technical character as well as the circumstances of a financial character. As Deputies know, the Road Fund is allocated to each county having regard to a number of different factors: the population in the county, the number of miles of main road, the proportion of Road Fund received from that county, and other circumstances. Using these factors, we allocated a proportion of the Road Fund to each county. In future, when the road plan is in full operation, it shall be possible to take account of the technical factors which, again, should redound to the interest of the ratepayers and the taxpayers alike.
Therefore, the road plan announced by the Minister should relieve the fears of ratepayers who are under the impression that they may be saddled with some enormous, undue expenditure after the war The road plan is a controller of expenditure as well as a creator of expenditure. There is no question that if we are to have a sound, efficient agricultural economy and a sound efficient industrial economy, we shall have to spend money on roads and we all hope that our national income will permit that expenditure and that we shall engage in such internal and external trade as will make it possible for us to carry out the plan in full. But, as I have said, the road plan will be not only a creator but a controller of road expenditure by ratepayers and taxpayers alike.
Deputies have asked for some information in regard to the receipts from the Road Fund. The receipts have varied in different years. They have steadily risen with the increase in motor traffic and whereas in 1923 the figure was £421,500, in 1938-39 the figure reached the very high total of £1,162,000. As Deputies will know from a question that was asked recently, the vast proportion of the Road Fund has been spent on the roads and although there has been a contribution from the Road Fund to the Exchequer that has been more than offset by the proportion of the Employment Fund spent on road improvement. Taking the proportion of the Employment Fund that has been expended on the roads and the Road Fund less the contribution of the Road Fund to the Exchequer, I do not think it can be said that the ratepayers have suffered in any way or have been deprived of the value of the motor licences which have been paid through the local authority.
The House may be interested to know that in 1932 there were 5,137 miles of dust-free surfaces in this country and, by 1942 the figure had reached over 12,000 miles, indicating a very great progress in making modern roads. Deputies interested in rural districts will also be aware of the fact that in future road-planning we intend to provide, as far as we are able, a special surface for the use of farm carts on steep gradients and wherever it is deemed advisable. There again we shall have to take into account the fact that the use by the farming community of motor vehicles has enormously increased. We shall have to adjust our views with regard to farm tracks, having regard to the needs of the farmer who brings his horse and cart to market and the farmer who will tend to use motor vehicles in the future.
I do not think there is any need for me, at this point, to repeat the road standards we have adopted. They have been given to the House and they have also been mentioned on various other occasions, but I can assure the House that our road standards are going to be reasonable and are not just grandiose in character. We believe that they are going to be practicable in every sense, provided the national income permits us to expend the necessary moneys thereon.
The suggestion has been made in the motion that the State should take over the maintenance of main roads. For the maintenance of main roads the grant in 1938 was £342,000; the improvement grant was £426,000. If that suggestion is carried out, another £513,000 will be required. In other words, we will have to take the whole of the Improvement Fund, plus £87,000, in order to carry out the terms of the motion. It will be hard enough to find money for road construction and repair after the war without disturbing the present proportions of local and central taxation for roads, and the Government's opinion is that it would be most undesirable to disturb that proportion and that the State contribution, having regard to all the circumstances, is fairly equitable.
Another reason for rejecting this motion is the fact that, once you divide roads specifically into roads controlled entirely by the State and roads controlled entirely by the local authorities, it is quite evident that there will be bound to be conflicts. I do not think the Minister or any member of any Party having a reasonable view on these things would enjoy the prospect which would ensue if we had continued disputes as to which roads should be transferred from the local authority to the national authority for the purpose of maintenance and improvement. Naturally, that proportion of 10,000 miles of main roads to 40,000 miles of local roads may alter; in connection with every alteration there would be a dispute and representations would be made by county councillors and Deputies, and I do not think that that would create a desirable atmosphere in which to carry out road construction and maintenance.
The House would perhaps like a few figures which would show the position in Ireland with regard to road mileage and expenditure as compared with neighbouring countries. The mileage of roads per 1,000 of the population in this country is 16 miles; in England it is 4½ miles. The following figures indicate the relative contributions of the State towards road expenditure in this and other countries. In 1938, the State contribution per mile per thousand persons was 6½d.; in Northern Ireland, it was 1/11; and in Great Britain 2½d. These three communities are very different and comparison has only a very limited value; but in this country, with about one-third or one-fourth of the British national income per head of the population, an expenditure of 6½d. per mile per 1,000 persons sounds fairly adequate in comparison with 1/11 in Northern Ireland. Although it is true that there is a concentration of industry in Northern Ireland greater than here and that these figures are not strictly comparable, they indicate that we have made a reasonable contribution towards road construction and improvement.
Again, if you examine in detail the proportion which the road rate in various counties bears to the total rate, you will find that the amount varies; that, as certain Deputies said, it is very high in certain counties. But, taken as a whole, the figures do not reflect an excessive burden on the ratepayers. If you take the total road rate as a percentage of the total rate in various counties, you will find that it varies from 18 per cent. to 34 per cent. In a very large number of counties the figure is approximately 25 per cent. There is no need to give the counties separately because we should then be discussing purely individual examples. But, looking down the list, a great number of the counties have a percentage of 25 per cent.
In connection with the percentage of the main road rate to the full rate, the figures show again, I think, that the State is making a fair contribution. The rates vary from 9 per cent. upwards. I think the highest figure is 15 per cent. There are a great many counties where the proportion is 9 per cent.; there are a number where it is 10 per cent. and there are a few where it is 11 and 12 per cent. But, as I say, in the largest number of counties it is 9 and 10 per cent. That is a clear indication that the State is doing its part and I do not think that Deputies can complain. When a county spends out of its total rate 10 per cent. on main road maintenance, I do not think it is an unreasonable figure. I do not think it is a figure which justifies the sponsoring of this motion. If it were a higher figure, if it were twice or three times that, we might be put in the position of having to defend ourselves rather more urgently. But I do not think that the Minister has any reason to accept criticism when the average percentage of the main road rate to the full rate in counties is in the nature of 9 or 10 per cent.
Perhaps if members of the Farmers' Party were to read in detail the report of the Local Government Department they would find clear indications that, in so far as we can, we have adjusted the proportions equitably. I do not believe that we should commit ourselves too far into the future. There is no reason why, if circumstances appear to warrant it, we might not slightly alter or modify, in an upward or a downward direction, our contribution towards road construction and maintenance. And if, by any chance, in the course of the next ten years, the figure should then change no Deputy can say: "We told you so". Looking back on the years before the war when conditions were normal, I think that our contribution was reasonable and I think that all the financial and technical circumstances demand that this motion be defeated.