The recent allocation of funding for roads in County Cork that was announced by the Government leaves our county with €1,000 less per kilometre than the national average. At a recent Cork County Council meeting, councillors were told that County Cork has lost €273 million for roads since 2008. We have the third lowest sum per kilometre of all local authorities. They were also told that if County Cork got the increases every other council got in the last 16 years, instead of us getting €83.6 million this year we should have got €273 million. I recently got an email from a man who had returned home for his mother's funeral in west Cork. He said that he was greeted once again with atrocious roads, plenty of potholes and surface water all over the place. His friends who attended the funeral from Armagh stated that they were astounded at our road conditions. He said that we have a road network designed for horses and carts from the 18th and 19th centuries and there have been no major upgrades. At the council meeting last Monday, councillors reacted furiously to what they were told, leading one Fine Gael councillor, who must be in la-la land, to point the finger at his Deputies and Senators who are not working on our behalf. Fine Gael has been in government during the decades of underspending. When will this under-resourcing of roads for west Cork end? What will the Taoiseach do about it?

I will have to ask the Minister for Transport to engage with the Deputy on that matter. Local authorities do not need to entirely rely on central Government for funding for local and regional roads. Local authorities have other income, including income from commercial rates, the local property tax and other sources, and there are councils in Ireland that do not rely entirely on central government grants for roads. That has to be taken into account as well.