THE Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, has conceded it will take a good many years before all of the Republic's pot holed county roads are upgraded to an acceptable standard.
However, he said "great strides" were being made to deal with the problem under the Government's 10 year restoration programme. "It's not like it was in the past when people had, little or no hope," he said.
One of the aims of the programme is to move away from the old practice of filling potholes with tar which rarely survived the winter frost. Priorities are, however, still determined by local councils under certain criteria.
A total of £73 million in Exchequer funding has been made available this year for the restoration programme. Mr Howlin said local communities were "beginning to see the fruits of increased expenditure in this area".
He denied the programme had, been timed for the next general, election. If you are asking me as a politician if I object to doing, things that are popular, then the answer to that question is no, Mr Howlin said.
Giving his first progress report on the programme, he said 8 per cent of the total county road network of 87,800 kilometres had already been done with more than 4,000 projects due for completion by the end of this year.
The projects, with an aggregate, road length of more than 6,000 kilometres, include several stretches of poorly maintained roads in Co Kildare where Mr Howlin took journalists earlier this year to announce the programme.
He said it made sense to give progress reports on how the pothole problem was being handled. Regular progress reports would also "give heart to those who still live on potholed roads", Mr Howlin said. "But it's fair to say that it will take a good many years before we bring the entire network to an acceptable state."
Though funding had not yet been agreed for 1997, he said the Government was committed to a 10 year programme. The scale of need and the level of funding required to meet it is being studied by consultants.
