COUNTY councils which fail to play their part in implementing the Government's restoration programme for county roads will be penalised by having their grants reduced, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, warned yesterday.
Adopting a similar approach to the line he pursued as Minister for Health in reducing hospital waiting lists, Mr Howlin told, a large gathering of local authority officials that it would be irresponsible to throw substantial state resources at county roads without achieving optimum results.
Earlier he had ventured into what he called "the lion's den" to see for himself two of the worst back roads in Co Kildare, using his umbrella to measure the depth of their rain drenched pot holes and claiming to be the first Minister for the Environment to invite camera crews to film the damage.
He promised long suffering rural communities "a blitzkrieg of sorts" to upgrade the county and regional road network, which has been neglected in recent years as engineers concentrated their attention on EU funded motorways and other major schemes to improve national primary routes.
Last year an additional £20 million was provided by the Exchequer and this has been matched again for 1996 to bring total state funding for county and regional roads to a record £146 million.
A further £60 million is to be provided by the local authorities themselves from their own resources.
The Minister emphasised that the financial commitment being made this year was the first tranche of a more structured multi annual improvement programme for these roads, which account for over 90 per cent of the Republic's total road mileage and carry almost half of all road traffic.
His Department estimates that 30 per cent of the county roads are deficient, mainly because of their shallow pavement which had been "cheaply black topped" over the years.
This was done in "the Morris Minor era", but they were now carrying heavy trucks which could do as much damage as 10,000 cars.
As a result, Mr Howlin said, "nobody can be sure at this stage the exact extent of the problem and hence the full cost of restoring the network".
A consultancy study is to be carried out to quantify the deficiencies, based on uniform assessment criteria, as well as the cost of dealing with them.
But he said the package of grants for 1996 takes account of the fact that the regional and county road network is "a vital national asset", valued at £16 billion, which would be progressively eroded by continued deterioration. "The Government is not prepared to allow this to happen," he declared.
Although county councils will continue to decide on the selection of individual projects, he made it clear that they would be obliged to justify this on the basis of priority needs in the context of a five year programme as well as adhering to performance standards specified by his Department.
The councils are also being required to make a "realistic contribution" to the restoration programme from their own resources and to increase this year by year, at least in line with inflation. Those who do will be rewarded with even more Exchequer money, while those who do not will have their grants cut.
Asked if the whole scheme was yet further evidence of the nanny State" dictating to local authorities, the Minister said a study of the funding of local government was now being completed. But he believed that, without an all party approach, it would be difficult to change the balance of power.
He said that grants would continue to be paid to councils under the EU funded scheme for specific improvement works, such as the construction of new roads to facilitate industry, while the authorities in Border and maritime counties would get EU aid for schemes supporting economic development.
The biggest single allocation, amounting to £1.5 million, is for major improvements to the R404 in Co Kildare, to cater for the proposed Hewlett Packard plant near Leixlip. The long delayed Newlands Fonthill road in Co Dublin receives £1.01 million and the Kinsale road in Co Cork gets £1 million.
Under the EU funded programme for maritime and Border counties, the biggest beneficiaries are Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, with £1.5 million for road improvements to cater for its new ferryport, and Wexford County Council, which is to get £1 million for the renewal of Wexford bridge.
The scheme has been welcomed by the AA and IBEC as an important commitment to improving Ireland's road network. But the AA complained that minor roads in Cork and Dublin which carry large volumes of traffic were still being neglected because of the primary emphasis on ridding rural areas of potholes.
