Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure those figures for the transport budget and the budget for roads in 2022 are correct. I will need to go back to office later and check on them. As far as I am aware, we have found additional funding for the remainder of this year for local and regional roads. That is coming from the Department of Transport budget, which will not be fully spent this year and will need to be carried over in part into next year. We also found additional funding for the local improvement scheme for laneways and rural roads in particular.

That is coming through from the Department led by the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys. We must maintain that funding in the years ahead, given the long list of projects that are still awaiting funding.

As the Deputy acknowledges, we have many roads in Ireland relative to our population and much of that is down to our settlement patterns, which are quite dispersed and not as concentrated as they might be in other countries. That makes them particularly difficult to maintain, but we should maintain them because motorists also pay much tax, whether it is motor tax, vehicle registration tax or the tax on diesel or petrol. Much of that should be used to maintain and improve our roads.

Local authorities can help as well and no local authority should consider itself entirely dependent on central government for funding for roads. They have the capacity to use money from the local property tax and commercial rates to improve their roads and it is appropriate that they should do so. Some money should come from central government but there should also be money coming from local resources. It is important that the two of these elements happen rather than just one.

On the question of roads programmes in the round, the national development plan, as referenced by the Deputy, provides for a 2:1 split on spending on new transport projects, with two thirds spent on public transport and one third spent on new roads. In the past year, we have seen some significant new road projects go to construction. For example, we have the next phase at Dunkettle, outside Cork city, which the Deputy knows well, and the Moycullen bypass just west of Galway city, which many people here also know well. There is also the Moyross road outside Limerick city and the Turlough to Scramogue road, which is an upgrade of the N5. Despite claims to the contrary, in the past year alone five major road projects have been signed off by the Department of Transport and its Minister. We expect to see further road projects being signed off in the year ahead.

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