Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 95: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the degree to which he might be prepared to recognise the shortfall of funding experienced by the various local authorities affecting the maintenance of the local road network in both urban and rural areas; if he will consider providing some extra facilities in recognition of the situation even if this meant diverting funds identified for national or regional works; if he might be prepared to examine the priorities of each local authority in this regard and in view of the degree to which the general public on a daily basis require the use of road, footpath and other traffic management facilities at local level, if he might be in a position to set targets in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32111/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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While the NRA, in association with the relevant road authorities, is responsible for the national road network, the improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is a statutory function of each road authority in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act, 1993.

In the case of the national network the Exchequer provides all the funding while works on regional and local roads are to be funded by the relevant local authority from its own resources supplemented by State road grants. Since 1997, over €6.8 billion has been provided by the Exchequer to local authorities for works on regional and local roads. These funds were in addition to local authorities' own contributions.

State funding to assist local authorities to maintain regional and local roads is apportioned as equitably as possible on the basis of factors such as route lengths and population densities. The initial selection of works as between regional and local roads within its area of responsibility is for the most part a matter for the relevant local authority, and I believe it would be a retrograde decision to take this role away from them. The members of each local authority are 'on the ground', and have a far better appreciation of the priorities in their own local area than officials in my Department.

In the current financial circumstances my priority is to protect previous investment in the roads network and ensure that the distribution of available funding is done in the most targeted manner possible. In this context my Department is supporting the use by local authorities of pavement management systems to identify priorities for future road works on the regional and local road network.

In relation to any proposal to increase funding to local roads, the total amount of capital and current funding for National, Regional and Local Roads is €885m this year. It will decrease to €533m next year and to €492m by 2016. In this context, if increase funding were to be made available for local roads it would be a question of cutting funding for other roads to a far greater extent. I have no proposals to do this.