I raise this matter because in the reply today to a Question put down by Deputy Kyne and myself the Minister said:
So far as the City section of the Waterford-Tramore road is concerned, I understand that the City Engineer considers that there is a possibility that the road may deteriorate under heavy traffic but that he was unable to give a quantitative estimate of expected damage. The additional Coras Iompair Éireann traffic will be considerably lighter than that envisaged by the City Engineer, and the technical information available to me does not indicate that it will cause appreciable damage. If extra maintenance does become necessary, the Corporation may charge the usual proportion of the expenditure to the Main Road Upkeep Grant....
It is evident that the technical information to the Minister is not sufficient. The portion of the road I mention—and I am speaking for the Waterford City Council—is from the junction of the Tramore and Cork roads out to what is called the Blackrock and is about two miles long. That road crosses a swamp and it was with great alarm that the people of Waterford read in the Irish Press of 8th November that portion of the Dublin-Limerick road which was a mile and one-eighth long would cost £54,000. It says here: “Built on the bog it cracked and slanted according to the conditions of the bog.” It also says: “The scheme was undertaken by North Tipperary County Council, who received a 100 per cent. Government grant of £54,000.”
To say that this road crosses a bog is an understatement. It crosses a swamp and I am grateful to the Irish Independent for their timely photograph in today's issue showing the road, which crosses the swamp, completely flooded. A train is also crossing the swamp but it is on a higher bank than the road. That is the portion of the road with which I am concerned. The part of the road from the Blackrock to Sheeps Bridge and leading into the county will be dealt with by my colleague Deputy Kyne. It is a matter for the county council of which he is a member as well as being a Deputy.
The Minister said today that the additional C.I.E. traffic would be considerably lighter than that envisaged by the City Engineer. The City Engineer's envisaging of this traffic was due to his being a member of a deputation that was led by the Mayor of Waterford to meet Mr. Frank Lemass, General manager of C.I.E. I happened to be on that deputation. He told us that at the peak period there would be 20 buses on this road. There would have to be twenty and there might have to be thirty buses on this road.
When the new road is flooded the traffic must go up the old road as they call it. That is a secondary road, portion of which is also in the city, and that road will take some punishment from the buses. When there was a bus service on it away back in the thirties it cut the old road to pieces. These two roads, the old road as far as Cows Bridge, and the new road as far as the Blackrock and Sheeps Bridge are in the bailiwick of the Waterford Corporation. Seeing that the mile and one-eighth of road crossing the bog will cost £54,000, it will cost nearly £100,000 to put this new road in order and goodness knows what it will cost to make the old road fit to carry this traffic.
The Minister should take immediate steps to deal with this situation. It is reasonable to suggest that he should send some of the officers of his engineering section to Waterford at the earliest possible moment to consult with the city manager and the local officials. He will discover that I have not exaggerated in the least about this. There are the facts in the Irish Press and the photograph in the Irish Independent.
The Minister says that if this extra maintenance becomes necessary, and it will become necessary, he will put up the usual proportion of the expenditure. That is imposing a burden on the taxpayers in respect of a service that C.I.E. should be doing. The Waterford city ratepayers will also have to pay their portion and that is one of the principal reasons why they are alarmed about it. The memorandum we received from C.I.E. told us that the railway is losing £3,000 a year.