Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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Cavan is a largely rural county. It is divided into three LEAs, which correspond to the three engineering areas. Speaking to the engineers in these areas, they tell me there are approximately 1,000 km of local road in each area. Based on the funding they have received, when we take out the cost of repairing regional roads in the area and town centres, they have approximately enough to repair 1% to 1.5% of the local road network per year. One engineer told me he had enough to repair 15 km of local road out of almost 1,000 km. At this rate of going, a road repaired this year will not be repaired again for another 100 years. Roads are disintegrating in front of our eyes. When the council goes out to prepare a road for tarring, practically all of the culverts all need to be repaired. A huge amount of work needs to be done even preparing a road because it has been so long since the previous repair.

Cavan is a county that depends largely on agriculture, agribusiness and small and medium-sized enterprises. All of these contribute significantly to the economy, as do ordinary people who pay their road tax and cannot understand why they cannot travel the roads. I hear from carers who find it very difficult to get to the people they are caring for. Their cars are being destroyed. I hear from people delivering meals on wheels. I hear from school bus drivers who cannot travel the roads to get children to school.

The council prepared a comprehensive report, which it sent to the Department. It looked at the funding it has received for roads since 2008. It believes there is a shortfall of €200 million when account is taken of inflation and the fact the cost of construction has risen dramatically, as has the cost of construction materials. The money has not kept in line with inflation. If the council needs to break into land for the development of housing or enterprise, it costs a huge amount of money and this is not being factored in. In order for the council to deal with the housing shortage or ensure there is economic development in the county, more investment is needed.

Something has to be done. People depend on the rural road network. We are not going to be able to put public transport on all our rural roads. People need to be able to get to work, to their farms and everywhere else they need to go. As things are, the roads are just disappearing. It may not be different in other counties but in general in Cavan there is a very large network of rural roads and we need investment in them to ensure we maintain them. Cavan is a drumlin county and it has 365 lakes and a lot of rivers and streams. This needs to be factored in as well but I do not think it is. Has the Department of Transport looked at this and considered increasing funding to ensure the roads do not disintegrate further?

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Tully for her question. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important topic with Members of the House today on behalf of the Minister for Transport. I understand Senator Tully’s question is on the funding provided to local authorities for the maintenance of local roads, with a particular emphasis on the Cavan region. It is a region I am very familiar with as I represent Sligo, Leitrim and south Donegal and, at one stage, I represented west Cavan. They are the same type of area and they have all had issues with local roads. It might not pertain in other areas but it is very important in Senator Tully's area.

As Senator Tully is aware and as outlined in the 2025 regional and local roads programme, the Government is strongly committed to protecting the existing road network. It is important to highlight that the improvement and maintenance of the regional road network is the statutory responsibility of each local authority in accordance with the Roads Act 1993. Works on these roads are funded from the council's own resources and are supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works is a matter for the local authority. There has been a significant increase in Exchequer funding in recent years, with an Exchequer investment of €713 million in our regional and local roads this year. This represents an increase of 25% in funding when compared with 2021.

As regards the basis for allocating grants within the budget available to the Department, grant funding is allocated on the basis of grant programmes and not on the basis of the category of road. The allocation of funding across specific roads or across categories of road is a matter for each local authority, having regard to the funding available to it from local and central sources as well as its particular priorities.

The main regional and local road grant programmes are targeted at specific policy objectives, such as restoration maintenance grants for pavement sealing to protect the road surface from water damage, restoration improvement grants for road strengthening based on pavement condition rating to lengthen the life of road pavements, and discretionary grants which allow 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.

Apart from a requirement that 15% of the road strengthening grant is spent on regional roads, the allocation of funding to different categories of road is entirely a matter for decision by each local authority. In addition, 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 resources 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 resources funding.Basing allocations on road condition could therefore disincentivise local authorities from allocating their own resources to funding roads maintenance.

The Department operates the community involvement scheme, CIS, to facilitate local community participation on a voluntary basis in the repair of local roads. The focus of the programme is on the repair of more lightly trafficked public roads that might not be high on the list of a local authority's annual roadwork programme.

The Department appreciates that, within the overall parameters set for the regional and local road grant programmes, local authorities might need to target funding at particular problem areas and there is sufficient flexibility in the structure of the grant programme to allow for this. It is also open to each local authority to allocate its own resources to priority areas. It should be noted that Exchequer funding for regional and local roads is intended to supplement realistic contributions from local authorities’ own resources. As the statutory road authorities for their areas, it is open to local authorities to prioritise investment towards regional and local roads.

I am very familiar with Cavan. It is a rural county and we need to do everything possible and use whatever flexible ways we can to incentivise road repairs. I remember there were pothole candidates in Cavan when I first got involved in politics over 25 years ago. The road network has improved, but the cost of repairing roads has gone up. The Senator made a very valid argument that maybe we needed to increase the funding as well.

Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State pointed out that the funding had increased by 25% since 2021, but so have the costs, so the increase is probably negligible. The council does prioritise roads, but it has to spend money on other aspects as well. It cannot put everything into roads. Repairing 1% to 1.5% of the rural road network per year is just not sufficient. It has to be addressed or we will not be able to travel on the roads if this continues on.

The Minister of State says that Exchequer funding disincentivises councils from putting in their own funds. They put in whatever funds they can into the roads. They try to be as imaginative as possible to get the funding together to spend on the roads, but it is just not possible. I understand that regional roads have to be repaired. They carry the most traffic and that is important, and no one is arguing about that, but it is no good if you cannot access your rural road to get to your regional road. It will not encourage investment in the county. As it is, we are a county without a rail service and with a very poor public bus service. We need to invest in our roads to ensure that people can travel on them safely and without additional cost or damage to their cars.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The Irish road network consists of over 100,000 km of road. While the national road network carries about 45% of total traffic, there is a very extensive network of regional and local roads. Regional roads comprise approximately 13% of all roads and local roads about 82% of all roads. This year, regional and local road grants were notified to local authorities on 14 February. Cavan County Council has been allocated €19.2 million, which is an increase of €1.7 million on its 2024 allocation. The Senator made a very valid argument, though. As a Member in a rural constituency, the same as the Senator, championing and fighting for more funding for local and regional roads is one thing we are always doing.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State is going to stay with us for the next Commence matter, which is from Senator Sarah O'Reilly.