Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Burke for raising this important issue. I am familiar with the site as I visited it recently with the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Moran. It is useful to have this debate again with Deputy Burke.

As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. Within its annual budget the planning, design and implementation of individual road projects, such as the N4, is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TIl, under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

Ireland has just under 100,000 kilometres of road in its network and the maintenance and improvement of national, regional and local roads places a substantial financial burden on local authorities and on the Exchequer. Because of the national financial position, there have been large reductions in Exchequer funding available for roads expenditure over the past number of years.

Within its capital budget, the assessment and prioritisation of individual projects is a matter in the first instance for TIl in accordance with section 19 of the Roads Act. The Government’s Capital Investment Plan entitled Building on Recovery - Infrastructure and Capital Investment, provides the strategic and financial framework for TII's national roads programme for the period from 2016 to 2022. As Minister, I have to work within the capital budgets included in the plan and TII in turn has to prioritise works on the basis of the funding available to it.

Decisions on the transport elements of the capital plan 2016-2021 were framed by the conclusions reached in my Department’s Strategic Investment Framework for Land Transport. Based on the findings in that report it is envisaged that maintenance and renewal of the road network will continue to be the main priority over the next period and the bulk of the roads capital budget, 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 underway.

The transport element of the capital plan, Building on Recovery, makes provision for a limited number of development projects which are targeted at removing critical bottlenecks or upgrading inadequate sections of road, including the N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin upgrade scheme. It was not, however, possible to include a range of projects, including the N4 Mullingar to Longford section which incorporates Roosky.

As regards the N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin project, I understand that land acquisition and advance works for that project are underway and Tll has provided an allocation of €7.5 million to Sligo County Council this year to advance the process. As regards the possibility of additional funding within the plan period for national road projects, the capital plan review process is underway and my Department is making a strong case for extra funding to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, including the development of a project pipeline for national road schemes.

The final decisions on allocations are, however, matters for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Government as a whole. However, I do consider the case the Deputy has made to be a very strong one.

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