Last night, I attended a public meeting in Ballintemple Community Centre, Bruskey, County Cavan. It was a meeting organised by and very well attended by local people, as well as three county councillors from the locality along with me. The reason for the meeting was concern about the deterioration of the local road structure. I acknowledge this meeting could have taken place in many other places in Cavan and in many other counties throughout the country, as we are hearing, but there is a genuine concern about the lack of funding going towards the repair and upkeep of our local road structure.

Cavan is a county without a rail service so we are depending on the roads for transport. It is also an area that depends on agriculture and intensive agricultural practices, in particular. People hear about billions of euro of funding in the budget and yet, the money that is coming to local authorities for the repair of our roads is minuscule. Two local roads were particularly outlined which have a lot of traffic on them, including local buses. Of course, councillors will work with the engineer in the area to see if is there a possibility of having those roads repaired.

There was a wider discussion about how they feel there is a lack of accountability as to how the road money is spent. There are also issues of waste. Drainage came up a lot as well. A number of those councillors were part of a delegation to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, towards the ends of the year. They were looking both for an increased allocation and for the allocation to be made sooner in the year. They were asking that the allocation be made in early January in order that planning within local authorities could take place as to what roads they could repair. Any additional funding that might come later in the year, which is always welcome, could also be allocated sooner as well. It often ends up that there are roadworks in several locations at the one time, which causes a lot of disruption in a local area where councillors are trying to get the money spent before the end of year.

The allocation still has not been made, despite promises it would be made in January. We are into February and it has not been made. I ask for the allocation to be made to local authorities but we need an increased allocation in Cavan as well.

Not even 2% - 1.5% of the local road structure can be repaired under the current funding model and that is not sustainable.