The road network in County Roscommon — that is, all grades of roadway — is among the very worst in the country. The county or minor road network in this county is the most deteriorated, the most deficient, the most dangerous, in short, the very worst network of county or minor roads in the whole country. This evening I call on the Minister immediately to increase the block grant to the Roscommon local authority in order that remedial work can be undertaken to ameliorate the misery and the humiliation felt by thousands of people in the county who live along these roads and who must use them as access to their homes, their farms, their schools and, indeed, their work.
The Minister may have no news for us tonight other than to say he has no money but we do not accept that. There is a clear responsibility on the Government to maintain the public highway. When the deteriorated and deficient state of the public highway threatens life and limb — that is a fact — and when it threatens livelihoods and when children can no longer reach their schools — that is another fact because school transport services are being withdrawn from these awful roads — the Government cannot plead inability to pay.
In relation specifically to Roscommon, the relevant statistics and figures show the injustice which is being done to this county by the Government in terms of the allocation it gets to maintain and keep in order its road network. The county has 3,330 kilometres of county road; 1,250 kilometers are classified as primary or more important county roads, not to be confused with national primary roads or national secondary roads. We are talking about the more important mileages of the county roads. A recent survey shows that 550 kilometres, or approximately 45 per cent of this category, are seriously deficient, barely passable or downright dangerous. The remaining 2,080 kilometres are not yet fully surveyed to determine the level of danger and deterioration but that will be soon available. However, conservative estimates ahead of the survey suggest that 55 per cent of this second category, all 2,080 kilometres of it, are either dangerous or impassable and that the stretches that are reasonably acceptable in relative terms are nevertheless rutted and potholed over all the better stretches. The genesis of the disaster, of course, goes back to the madness of 1977.
Taking 1977 as the base year we find that the expenditure on county road maintenance in County Roscommon was £731 per kilometre. In the current year, 11 years on, the expenditure is £350 per kilometre, more than halved in money terms. In real terms the cut is unbelievable because the building cost index has increased by 247.9 per cent from May 1977 to the end of 1987. If we were to spend at the same level on maintenance as applied in 1977, the expenditure now would be £1,812 per kilometre. I have just mentioned that instead we are spending £350 per kilometre.
There is another set of statistics which shows the serious disadvantages of Roscommon and, indeed, a few other counties in the west in relation to road funding, particularly county road funding. I will quote from an analysis of the level of expenditure on county roads in 1986 prepared by the Minister's own Department which refers to all local authorities in the State. In 1986 the amount available to Roscommon County Council to expend under this heading was £420 per kilometre and this year that figure has fallen to £350 per kilometre. In 1986 Dublin County Council had £4,700 per kilometre to spend on county road maintenance. Tipperary South Riding had £1,300 per kilometre to spend on county roads in 1986. County Wicklow had £960 per kilometre, County Limerick, £934; County Cork had £866, County Kildare had £760 and the Minister's own county of Mayo had £410 per kilometre.
