There are 3,500 km of local and regional roads to maintain in County Wexford. We have funding that takes care of 200 km. Back in 1995 and 1996, in one of the first reports on roads, County Wexford was number five, which was worse than anywhere in the country. We came in at number five for the worst roads in the country. In 2022 we actually reached the bottom of the list and we have the worst maintained roads in the country. Yet, since 1995 there has never been a review to address the imbalance of funding. There are very good roads in County Kildare, which receives funding on the same basis as Wexford, by which I mean the funding is not dependent on the state of the road; it is calculated per kilometre. The best I can find in reports for the reasoning behind that is because Kildare is close to Dublin. When somebody is killed on the roads in Wexford and we ask the question as to why we have so many road deaths, we need to start looking at the condition of roads and we need to address the imbalance.

The Deputy does a disservice to road safety by claiming that the reason Kildare receives funding for roads is because it is close to Dublin-----

That is what the report says.

Criteria are laid out that lead to the allocation of funding to local authorities-----

I will send on the report.

I will most certainly engage with and raise the matter with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan-----

I will send the report to the Minister.

-----because I am aware how important is the investment in our roads to try to prevent the alarming risks that we are seeing with road safety. It is getting worse. I accept that this is a very important matter.