I want to impress on the Minister of State the need to postpone the introduction of the national test on motor vehicles due to come into force on 1 January 2000. I call on him to postpone its introduction until 2005 at least because of the scandalous condition of our county roads.
For the past decade all EU funding was chiefly directed to building autobahns from Dundalk to Wexford, Dublin to Athlone and Kildare and around Dublin city, but county roads were sadly neglected due to the lack of funding. Irish motorists will be at a serious disadvantage when com pulsory car testing is introduced next January because the condition of our roads is far below the standard of roads in other member states of the European Union.
If one drove a brand new car around my constituency of Cork South-West for six months, it would be reduced to a banger as a result of the condition of some of the roads there. The roads in other parts of the country are also in a scandalous condition. The by-roads have suffered severely due to the lack of funding, especially when EU funding was concentrated along the east coast. The south-west and western regions were forgotten in the pay-out of those funds and those regions did not get their rightful share, which would have brought the roads there up to an acceptable standard. Unless and until our roads are brought up to the standard of the roads in other member states of the European Union, motorists will pay a fortune in test costs and motor costs incurred in ensuring their cars pass the rigorous test that will be imposed on them.
Cork County represents one-eighth of the country, but alas our roads are in a scandalous condition, which makes it impossible for people to keep their cars in good shape. When the railway system in that constituency was taken away in the early 1950s and sold to a Third World country where it is still operating in perfect order, the then Fianna Fáil Government promised that the roads would be brought up to an acceptable standard and that we would have national primary and secondary roads throughout the length and breadth of the constituency, but we got nothing for the loss of our railway system. There is not one mile of national primary road in my constituency of Cork South-West that stretches almost from the airport in Cork city to Mizen Head, to Dursey Sound and the Beara Peninsula and is bigger than several other constituencies.
I ask the Minister of State to let common sense prevail and to postpone the introduction of the national car test on motor vehicles until the 2005 to enable his Department to bring the condition of our roads up to the standard of roads in other member states of the European Union. Why does he want to implement a European directive before our roads are brought up to that standard?
