Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will certainly go to other areas and will, of course, go back to Tipperary.

I would like to start by acknowledging the major impact on the maintenance and improvement of our national, regional and local road network of the funding cutbacks from 2008 associated with the financial crisis. The size of the road network at around 99,000 kilometres made the impact all the more severe. That said, the fact that our public road network is twice the European average per capitawill always present a funding challenge for the Exchequer and local authorities.

Analysis undertaken by my Department in relation to the Strategic Framework for Investment in Land Transportpublished in 2015 estimated, on a conservative basis, that expenditure of €580 million per annum is needed to keep the regional and local road network in a steady state condition. In order to avoid deterioration in the condition of the regional and local road network, each year 5% of the network needs to be strengthened and 5% needs to be sealed by way of surface dressing works. For the last number of years, only half the required road pavement works have been undertaken on the regional and local road network.

For the national road network the steady state analysis includes the cost of pavement works, signs and lines, safety works, bridge works, routine maintenance, small works and costs associated with programme support and network management. In addition to these network costs, there are also capital budget commitments requiring provision to be made for schemes at close-out and construction, and also for ongoing commitments in respect of PPP projects. The analysis conducted determined that on average the gross steady state requirement for national roads is around €580 million per annum, using 2015 as the basis.

Against the backdrop of serious funding constraints both Transport Infrastructure Ireland and my Department have been focussed on maintaining the network in as serviceable a condition as possible. In the case of regional and local roads this has meant concentrating resources on the maintenance and renewal of the public road network rather than new projects. The main grant programmes operated by the Department have been targeted at specific policy objectives: pavement sealing to protect the road surface from water damage, road strengthening based on pavement condition rating to lengthen the life of road pavements, and a discretionary grant which allows for a range of activities including winter maintenance. These three grant programmes account for most of the grant funding and are allocated based on the length of the road network in a particular county.

Local authorities can also apply each year for bridge rehabilitation grants based on condition ratings and for safety improvement schemes to address particular hazards.

In view of the fact that national roads and regional roads account for about 45% and 30% of overall road traffic respectively, the main requirement related to the regional and local road grant restoration programmes is that a minimum of 15% is expended on regional roads. Apart from that, local authorities have considerable flexibility in allocating grant funding and therefore it is important to emphasise that the decisions made on how best to use available resources are largely made by the local authorities in their capacity as the statutory road authorities responsible for their road network.

In this context, I would like to mention that while landowners along the road network have specific responsibilities in relation to hedge and tree cutting together with drainage, road authorities they do have the statutory power to intervene where necessary.

As part of the flexibility given to local authorities in managing grants, the practice since the recession has been to leave the decision on whether to contribute funding to maintaining private roads under the local improvement schemes, LIS, to individual local authorities. This is in response to what Deputy Harty had to say.

The reason a separate State grant allocation was not being made for LIS is that, given funding constraints, a ring-fenced allocation would result in a pro ratareduction in funding for public roads in a situation where public roads are significantly under-funded. In these circumstances it was preferable to allow elected members and officials of each local authority to decide whether to allocate funding to LIS, taking into account the own resource and grant funding available to it.

As State grants are intended to supplement local authority funding, my Department continues to emphasise to local authorities the importance of prioritising road maintenance when allocating their own resources. In fact, since the revision of the arrangements for the retention of local property tax in 2015, the Dublin councils no longer receive any grant assistance from my Department under the main grant categories.

I think everyone in the House accepts the importance of the road network in supporting the economic and social fabric of the country. The challenge for Government in recent years was how to address the real concerns about the condition of the network while operating within the EU fiscal rules and dealing with the many competing demands for limited resources.

Almost inevitably, this meant it was not possible to restore funding levels as quickly as everyone would have wished.

The publication in 2015 of the capital plan for 2016 to 2021 marked a move in the right direction in terms of restoring capital funding for the transport sector as we started to emerge from the financial crisis. The decisions on the transport elements of the capital plan were framed by the conclusions reached in the strategic investment framework for land transport. Maintenance and renewal of the road network will be the main priority over the capital plan period and the bulk of the roads capital budget, or approximately €4.4 billion, is earmarked for such essential work with a further €600 million allocated for implementation of the PPP road programme which is already under way. In this context, the capital plan provides for a gradual build up in capital funding from a relatively low base in 2016 towards the levels needed to support maintenance and improvement works by 2022. While 2017 sees an increase in overall funding, it will take some years yet under the capital plan to restore steady-state funding levels for land transport and to progress the improvement projects included in the plan. I was, however, very pleased this year, when announcing the regional and local road grants, to able to increase funding under the key road strengthening grant category and to make allocations to a number of projects which will support enterprises across the country.

As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport I know there is a robust case for additional investment in transport infrastructure and that maintenance deferred will result in higher costs later on. I am very hopeful that the review of the capital plan which the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, has started will result in additional funding for the transport sector. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe's public references to investment in transport are reassuring in this context. The final decisions on allocations are, however, matters for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Government as a whole.

I thank the Deputies for introducing this motion. I thank all those who have invited me to their constituencies to see the roads. I do not think Deputy Michael Healy Rae has done so yet.

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