Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the issues that came up in that area is that they administer the money for footpaths under active travel. One of the issues that comes up is - wait for it - they insist on consultants being brought in to do a design. I do not know about the other members of the committee. The person who told me that a few years ago was an area engineer. I said to him that he is a qualified engineer, and he said he knew that but that it is a requirement to put in a section of footpath. The money was subsequently lost for the reason Deputy Murphy just mentioned. Why would someone in an office in Dublin decide that consultants need to do a design for a footpath? It is bizarre. I am told there are six different gates for it to get through. It might be something we could have a go at. That needs to be addressed by the Minister. We want things to be done properly. This is not to do anything with bad workmanship or running footpaths where they are not needed. The issue is the level of bureaucracy around it. It may not be coming from a political level. I am not sure whether it is even known at a political level. I came across it on the ground because a project was funded, people were told it had been funded and was in the roads programme for that year and then it disappeared. No one could figure out why and councillors got it in the neck over it. The reason was the insistence on this ridiculous situation where a design has to be done by external consultants. Any engineer in a local authority would do. The overseer, the road ganger could do it, never mind the engineer designing it. They would put in a cycle path and a footpath running into a housing estate. It is ridiculous stuff.