I thank the Chair for the opportunity to raise this matter and I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dan Wallace, who will reply to the debate. On 29 May 2001, I tabled an Adjournment debate matter on a similar issue and I received confirmation from the Minister for the Environment and Local Government that Cork County Council has suffered historically from low funding levels during the lifetime of the Government. We have been at the bottom of the league table in every year that the Government has been in office. I tabled parliamentary Question No. 260 on Tuesday, 5 February 2002, in which the Minister again published in league table format the levels of funding received by each local authority. It is true that Cork County Council has made progress; it is no longer bottom of the league table, but second last. Cork County Council will receive €3,184 per kilometre in 2002, compared to Roscommon at the bottom which will receive €3,138. That is a shocking indictment of the Minister's contribution to the welfare of the citizens of Cork, particularly the motorists who are our constituents.
A fair and equitable comparison should be drawn between Cork County Council and Kildare County Council because the latter has heavy volumes of commuter traffic, intensive agriculture and associated heavy traffic, large urban centres and a suburban commuter belt. It is similar to County Cork and, in particular, the south Cork area. In this league table, Kildare County Council received €10,104 per kilometre of non-national road, to use the Department's jargon. Yet, Cork County Council received less than one third of that figure. I find it hard to draw any conclusion other than that the Minister has been pushed around in his Department. He has been unable to deliver. He has received scant support from his colleagues in Cork and, in particular, from his two Cabinet colleagues, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Deputy Walsh.
Arising from parliamentary questions on 10 May 2001, the Cork county manager, Mr. Maurice Maloney, put his name to a report outlining the historical under-funding of roads in Cork. Our allocation in 2001 was £26.98 million. He made the point that if we had received the average funding that County Kildare got per kilometre, we would have received £109 million. If we had received the national average, we would have got £34.8 million. If we had received what Monaghan County Council got per kilometre, we would have received £46.4 million. If we had received what the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Dempsey's county of Meath got, we would have received £55.6 million. I do not want to hear any political claptrap about what was allocated five years ago and what is being allocated now.
