Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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273. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the extent to which deficiencies in the availability of motorway-standard regional roads have been identified, with particular reference to the economic needs of regions to be met by way of adequate road networks of international standard; the areas under consideration in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22092/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation 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.

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.  The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

Motorways are the highest category of carriageway in Ireland, forming part of our Major Inter-urban Routes Network. The purpose of these routes is to link major economic and population centres.

While the vast majority of the regional road network is made up of single-carriageway roads, some roads are in fact, dual-carriageway with higher capacity. This is in response to such factors as traffic volume, population centres along a particular route and economic activity. An example of such a dual-carriageway road is the R113 Belgard Road in Dublin.

Where a road improvement is under consideration, it is for the road authority concerned to assess the appropriate design capacity for the road taking into account cost and demand factors.  Financial constraints mean that the focus at present is on the maintenance and repair of the regional road network rather than upgrades.