Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am replying on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar. The Minister has responsibility for overall policy and funding relating to the national roads programme. The planning, design and implementation of individual road projects is a matter for the National Roads Authority, NRA, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

Within its capital budget, the assessment and prioritisation of individual projects is a matter in the first instance for the NRA in accordance with section 19 of the Roads Act. The NRA has a budget of €318 million for improvement and maintenance works on the national roads network in 2013. The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants paid by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, announced the 2013 regional and local road grant allocations on 25 January last. A total of €350 million is being provided under the regional and local roads investment programme this year. From that allocation, Cork County Council is being provided with an allocation of over €40 million and Cork City Council is being provided with over €4.4 million.

The level of grants allocated to individual local authorities is determined having regard to a number of factors. These factors include: the total funds available in a particular year; eligibility criteria for the different road grant schemes; road pavement conditions; length of road network; the need to prioritise projects; and competing demands from other local authorities.

In determining the annual grant allocations, the overall objective remains to supplement the resources provided by each local authority in a fair and appropriate manner. Ireland has a uniquely extensive road network. There are approximately 98,000 km of road in the network, which represents two and a half times the EU average in terms of kilometres per head of population. The maintenance and improvement of this extensive network of roads places a substantial financial burden on local authorities and on the Exchequer.

With the vast network of roads serving very disparate needs from small farmers to large multinationals, a one-size-fits-all based regional and local roads maintenance regime would not be appropriate. Decisions should be made locally by local public representatives. Given the current financial position, the main focus has to be on the maintenance and repair of roads and this will remain the position in the coming years. There have been very large reductions in roads expenditure over the past number of years and there will be further reductions in the future. In 2007, there were grants of €2.375 billion available towards national, regional and local roads. These grants have fallen to €665 million in 2013 and will fall further to €629 million in 2014. The grants programme is structured to allow councils reasonable flexibility in using grants while also ensuring that there are clear outputs for the moneys allocated in terms of length of road maintained or rehabilitated.

County councils were provided with additional flexibility this year, enabling them to transfer funding from their restoration improvement grant to their discretionary grant. In Cork County Council's case, its restoration improvement grant is over €18 million while its discretionary grant is just over €7 million, or 17.9% of it total allocation. When one compares this to Cork City Council, whose discretionary block grant of €2.8 million accounts for 63% of its total allocation, one can see that the city council already has a greater degree of flexibility in deciding where to spend this grant funding. It is also important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement councils such as Cork county and city councils in their spending in this area. The reality is that the available funds do not match the amount of work required. My Department and local authorities are working closely to develop new, more efficient ways of delivering the best outputs possible with the funding available to them. Given the likely continued squeeze on Exchequer funding this concentration on efficiency is essential to achieve the best outturns for the limited money available.