Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis on Seanadóir as ucht an cheist seo a ardú. I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan. The Senator made a good case for small enterprises in County Monaghan. Such SMEs are just as critical to our economy as the multinationals. They provide employment for small numbers of people - five to ten employees - and this has a positive knock-on effect on families, employability and rural development in their areas. The Senator also raised the issue of inflation, and while the LIS is welcome, it will never cover what is needed across the country. It is always oversubscribed.

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 these roads are funded from councils' own resources, supplemented by State road grants, where applicable.

The major cuts to funding for regional and local roads during the post-2008 recession resulted in the build-up of a substantial backlog of works across the country, which the Senator referenced. The estimated cost of the backlog is in excess of €5 billion. Due to the pressures on regional and local road networks, approximately 90% of available Exchequer grant assistance to local authorities for regional and local roads is being directed to maintenance and renewal works. This is vital.

While funding is not at a level that would allow the backlog of roadworks across the country to be addressed, there have been significant increases in Exchequer grants for regional and local roads in the recent years. The 2022 allocation for regional and local roads is approximately €597 million - €46 million in current expenditure and €551 million in capital expenditure. This represents an increase of approximately 46% compared to 2017.

The main regional and local road grant programmes are targeted at the following specific policy objectives: pavement sealing to protect the road surface from water damage under the restoration maintenance grants; road strengthening based on pavement condition rating to lengthen the life of road pavements under the restoration improvement grants; and a discretionary grant that allows for a range of activities, including pothole repairs, edge strengthening, renewal of signs and lines, and winter maintenance. These three grant programmes account for most of the grant funding and are allocated based primarily on the length of the road network in a particular local authority area.

Within the available budget, the Department's grant funding for the maintenance of regional and local roads funding is allocated on as fair and equitable a basis as possible to eligible local authorities. In this context, grants in the main grant categories are allocated based on the length of the road network within a local authority's area of responsibility, with some account taken of traffic. It is envisaged that grants will continue to be made available on this basis.

Basing regional and local roads grant allocations on road conditions could result in an uneven distribution of Exchequer funding. For example, local authorities that allocate higher levels of own resource funding to regional and local roads will have a larger proportion of roads with a higher condition rating than those with lower levels of own resource funding. Basing allocations on road condition could, therefore, disincentivise local authorities from allocating own resource funding to roads maintenance.

The Department appreciates that, within the overall parameters set for the grant programme, local authorities might need to target funding at particular problem areas and there is sufficient flexibility in the structure of the grant programmes to allow for this. It is also open to each local authority to allocate its own resources to priority areas. In this context, the Department has supported the development of a road asset management system for regional and local roads – MapRoad - to provide the data needed for each local authority to manage its network as effectively as possible, including the prioritisation of works for inclusion in its maintenance and renewal works programme. The road pavement condition information generated by the MapRoad system forms the basis for the National Oversight and Audit Commission's performance reports each year.

While this reply does not entirely satisfy all of the questions raised by the Senator, I hope that he appreciates this year's increased allocation for local and regional roads.