Mr. Graham Doyle:

In 2018 our total roads funding will increase to approximately €880 million from approximately €760 million in 2017. We are now in a position where the funding of roads is increasing again. Over recent years we have sought to highlight exactly the point that Deputy Cullinane made earlier. One often gets a better hearing when one is seeking to put new infrastructure in place; it is slightly less glamorous to argue for the maintenance of the infrastructure that is already there. That was something that we were very anxious to do in recent years and that was the purpose of the aforementioned report. The aim of that framework document was to highlight this very issue and ensure that when we got to the point in the year where we were negotiating through the budgetary process for funding for roads and capital investment, the issue of roads maintenance was taken very seriously.