Mr. Michael Nolan:

We became aware of the cut when it was indicated to us by departmental officials in October 2017. On the back of that we decided to write to all local authorities, as we were aware they were trying to establish estimates and budgets for 2018. We wanted to alert them that the cut in the maintenance budget was coming. We do not deal directly with the Minister on this but rather with the Minister's senior officials. I am sure they communicated this to the Minister directly. We took the initiative to write to local authorities and alert them to this in order that they could plan and react to the cut. They could also ensure their estimates and budgets for the year would reflect the cut.

The cut of 30% has been mentioned but that was in a very narrow area within the overall maintenance budget. Mr. Maher could speak to this in more detail but it concerned one element. It was in the area dealing with grass cutting, litter picking, sign cleaning and very minor and basic repairs. We maintained the funding in a few areas where we have commitments. The public private partnerships, PPPs, were also mentioned, as well as the maintenance of motorways. We are in a contract with three private sector specialists for maintaining 750 km of the motorway network. We are committed to meet those bills and contractual obligations and maintaining the high-speed network in a safe condition for the next few years. The public private partnerships have a contractual obligation to maintain the network to a certain standard. It is funded through a combination of revenues from tolling and operational payments that we make on a monthly basis. That varies by scheme. They have an obligation to meet certain standards and are not affected by the cut in the ordinary maintenance budget. We oversee that and monitor the delivery of those obligations. The motorway network is dealt with by a combination of public private partnership, concessionaires and private contractors contracted to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII. Those commitments are honoured and that is why the motorway network will retain the level of maintenance seen in 2017 in 2018 and beyond.