Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. Ensuring that minimum standards are kept is a matter for local authorities. Local authorities, with TII, identify roads that need to be further maintained. The maintenance, protection and renewal budget was protected, which recognises the importance of road connectivity and safety for all road users. It is critical that we have new road infrastructure built as part of that. Public transport uses roads. We also need to make sure that we maintain and upgrade our existing road network to ensure we meet the minimum standards and that we retrofit, where possible, by putting in bus lanes, for example. All of this will form part of our vision for ensuring that we are connecting Ireland both in our rural and urban settings.

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