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

I thank the Deputy for raising this question. I agree that the road does need to be upgraded. We have approximately €500 million annually for national roads, with €250 million going to maintain and restore those we have and €250 million to invest in new projects. It is not always possible to fund every project every year. It never was and never will be, unfortunately. For the north west, priority is being given to the Carrick-on-Shannon bypass, as well as closing out the Westport to Castlebar road, the Foxford bypass and a few other projects.

We have agreed that during the course of the year, if one project is slowed down or gets stuck at a hurdle, we can reallocate funding from projects that got funding this year to those that did not. That is certainly a matter that is on my agenda.

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