I raise the issue of the gritting of secondary roads. We had bad frosty weather over the past few nights but secondary roads in my area near Athboy, Kildalkey, Enfield and Oldcastle are not being gritted. Some of them are on main bus routes. A few weeks ago, a bus went into the ditch in Kildalkey because there was no grit on the road and it could not get any traction on a bad corner. Yesterday, when I was dropping a friend home, we came across a lady with a young child who was after going into a ditch but, thankfully, nobody was hurt. Secondary roads all over Ireland are not being gritted. However, in Scotland, farmers are given a gratuity every year. They store grit, salt, gravel in a bank on their properties and when the bad weather hits, they grit 5 km or 6 km each in their communities. Everything moves in Scotland whereas in Ireland everything falls down because the local authorities do not have enough staff. We have to look at the Scottish way.

That is a good idea.

I thank the Senator. It is a good idea. Two or three years ago, farmers in Kerry went to the gravel yards in order that they could grit the roads. When farmers went to do that in counties Laois and Offaly, they were told they could not because there was no insurance to cover them. We have to consider providing insurance for them as well but the Scottish way works.

They are paying their property tax and everything else yet, because they are on secondary roads, they cannot come out of their homes. They are afraid to go on the roads because they might not get back home.

Can we have the Minister in to speak about the Scottish way? Let us debate it and move forward. There is no reason rural Ireland has to close down due to bad roads.