Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources and are supplemented by State road grants. In January 2010, my Department established a review group to carry out a review of the transport response to the severe weather during the period November 2009 and January 2010. In this review, my Department has recommended that local authorities and the National Roads Authority should work together to put in place framework contracts with a number of salt suppliers and that local authorities should draw down their supplies under these framework contracts and should continue to be responsible for the implementation of the response on the ground. The National Roads Authority has put a framework contract in place, providing for 80,000 tonnes of salt with scope to draw down additional salt supplies as required.

The review also recommended that local authorities should draw up lists of priority routes for treatment during severe weather. Local authorities were asked to publish their winter maintenance plans on their websites in advance of December 2010. This would allow the public to be aware of what routes will be treated in the case of severe weather and the type of intervention envisaged.

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