Mr. Fred Barry:

There are a couple of situations around the country where we are doing this, but we really have to understand what is leading to accidents. We cannot just have a knee-jerk reaction and say we will do something. Kerry County Council is applying temporary speed limits in the area to protect people in the meantime and we will be very active with it. We will give a speedy response and will not let the issue lag.

Questions were asked about additional moneys and maintenance. I have probably said it all. Infectious weeds are dreadful and they are everywhere. The funding from the National Roads Authority goes to the local authorities. However, as of this year the NRA is taking direct responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the dual carriageway and motorway network. With our contractors, we will be tackling infectious weeds on the dual carriageway network. I agree with the constituent who spoke to the Deputy that some of the weeds are very invasive and extremely difficult to deal with and if they are not dealt with, they can lead to long-term problems. We will tackle the issue. The National Roads Authority will work on the problem on the dual carriageway network, while local authorities will manage it on the single carriageway network.

I cannot give an answer on the health and safety policy contribution to project costs. Safety issues, in particular, give rise to much of the work we do, but I cannot give a figure for how much one could attribute to health and safety issues. VAT on design and build work is payable at a rate of 13.5% and 23% on services. That is the proportion of our budget that goes in VAT payments.

On tendering processes and levels of discretion, typically, the processes used in tendering are set by ourselves and the Government Contracts Committee, in particular, which gives the standard forms of contract and conditions of contract to which we all work. Individual competitions are run, usually by panels, to avoid bias and make sure everything is transparent and above board. It is illegal to discriminate against entities simply because they are from outside Ireland, if they are from within the European Union. Part and parcel of our EU membership is that businesses and companies from other EU countries can do business here, just as Irish companies do such a great job in doing business in other countries. We cannot insert provisions-----