Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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252. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in the event of the reallocation of capital funding within his Department in 2022, if he will ensure that additional funding is provided for the 2022 non-national roadworks programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39294/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Department's annual investment budget is shaped around delivering the objectives of the National Development Plan 2021-2030 that are relevant to transport and which support the overall objectives of the National Planning Framework. The €35bn investment allocation, which funds delivery of the plan, is designed to support investment in protection and renewal of road, rail and active travel infrastructure; the optimisation of existing infrastructure; as well as investing in new assets and infrastructure where appropriate.

Protection and renewal of regional and local roads is an important investment strand in the NDP and in 2022 from an overall capital allocation of 2.547bn received a budget of 490m or 19% of the total allocation. In addition, from a current expenditure allocation of 885.494m, protection and renewal of regional and local roads received 45.916m. The final sectoral allocations are decided during the Revised Estimates process each year, which concludes in late November or early December.

If additional capital becomes available for re-allocation in a given year, the merits of re-allocating to regional and local roads protection and renewal will of course be considered. There are no plans to re-allocate capital at present. As is standard practice, should capital become available for re-allocation, a review of all spending areas will take place, including regional and local roads protection and renewal, to determine the most appropriate spending areas to re-allocate capital to in the context of meeting annual and medium term investment objectives.

I trust this information is of assistance.