Written answers

Tuesday, 26 April 2022

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Departmental Funding

Photo of Verona MurphyVerona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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338. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when his Department plans to increase roads maintenance funding to local authorities; if his Department has conducted a review as to the way that this funding is distributed to local councils; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21202/22]

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon 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, where applicable. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

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. The estimated cost of the backlog is in excess of €5 billion.

Because of the pressures on the regional and local road network, approximately 90% of available Exchequer grant assistance to local authorities for regional and local roads is being directed to maintenance and renewal works rather than for new roads or for road realignments.

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

As regards the basis for allocating grants, within the available budget, the Department's grant funding for the maintenance of regional and local roads 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 that 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 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 own resources funding to roads maintenance.

My Department and I appreciate 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 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 reprioritise investment towards regional and local roads.

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