Councils must repair roads, says Dempsey

MINISTER FOR Transport Noel Dempsey has warned he would not accept those with local responsibility for roads “passing the buck to me”.

During a Dáil row over the state of national roads in the wake of Arctic winter conditions and calls for his intervention, he said “if the Minister for Transport or any other Minister has to tell a local authority that it must keep its roads from being potholed it does not say much for the members of the local authorities concerned”.

David Stanton (FG, Cork East) had asked the Minister to liaise with local authorities to get some of the badly damaged roads repaired. He referred to the Road Safety Authority’s concern that road conditions were “contributory factors” in quite a number of deaths on Irish roads between 2008 and 2009.

What does the Minister have to say to motorists whose cars are being badly damaged, and in many cases accidents occurring, because of the very bad conditions of the secondary roads and by-roads, which are literally falling apart?

He suggested the Minister issue guidelines to local authorities “to get their act together and get those potholes fixed quickly”, and he called on the Minister to “stop passing the buck”.

Mr Dempsey said: “I am not passing the buck”, and warned that “it is time people took responsibility”.

“It is the responsibility of the local authorities to look after their local roads. By and large, they do that, and do so reasonably well.”

However there were some councils which “provide as little as 5 per cent of the cost of the roads, and that does not display a huge commitment to the local and regional roads in some counties”.

The Minister also warned that “motorists need to drive at a speed appropriate to the road conditions”.

Joe Carey (FG, Clare) had asked if the Minister would “provide exceptional funding this year, in line with what he did last year, to allow county councils throughout the country fix the roads”. Mr Carey said there had been unprecedented damage.

The Minister said: “in fairness, most of the local authorities take their responsibilities seriously in this particular area”.

“There is always a dilemma at this time of the year regarding roads that are damaged, and particularly potholed.”

He said: “if local authorities throw some tar and chippings into the potholes, which wears away in a few days, they are accused of wasting money. A balance must be kept.”

“Last year I heard fellows on the radio claiming it would take €1 billion to fix the damage to roads. It did not cost anything near that.”