Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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263. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if much needed additional funding will be provided for the non-national road network in areas such as counties Cavan and Monaghan in the event of a reallocation of capital funding within his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41013/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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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 Councils' own resources supplemented by State road grants.

The National Development Plan (NDP), as it stands, provides for a gradual increase in funding for regional and local roads and there has been a significant increase in Exchequer funding particularly in the last four years. Funding is not yet at the level needed for the adequate maintenance and renewal of regional and local roads and so for this reason, the primary focus for capital investment continues to be the maintenance and renewal of the network with some limited investment in road improvement projects.

I announced the 2021 regional and local road allocations earlier this year and all grant funding available to my Department has now been allocated. Cavan County Council received a total allocation of €15,484,815 and Monaghan County Council received a total allocation of €16,006,398, including funding for a number of pilot schemes relating to road materials.

I also recently announced the details of a €17.3 million investment package for climate adaptation works on regional and local roads with a view to making the network more resilient. Cavan County Council received an allocation of €522,050 and Monaghan County Council received an allocation of €440,000.

As regards the Department's budgets more generally, drawdown on capital spending varies from month to month and it is too soon to determine whether any slower than expected drawdowns at the start of the year will lead to a gross capital underspend for the entire year. In addition, as capital is allocated to support specific investment programmes and projects, in the first instance it will need to be determined whether the capital should be ‘carried’ into the next fiscal year to continue to support the programmes and projects in question.