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 local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants.

The primary focus for capital investment under the National Development Plan continues to be the protection and renewal of the regional and local road network which plays a critical role in supporting economic and community links throughout the country and is used by buses, cyclists, commercial vehicles, HGVs as well as private cars.

The National Development Plan will enable a spend of €5.35 billion on the protection and renewal of regional and local roads over the 10 year period until 2030. This funding will help fund measures including road pavement resealing and strengthening works across the network, bridge rehabilitation projects, climate adaptation and safety measures, drainage works together with community involvement schemes on less trafficked roads. Allocations will continue to be made at the start of each year to individual local authorities based on the overall regional and local grant budget for the year in question.

In addition to protecting and renewing the regional and local road network, it is a priority to carry out targeted improvements to sections of the network and €677 million is earmarked for such improvements on new regional and local roads over the 10 year period until 2030. Road improvement projects proposed by local authorities for consideration for funding will be assessed by the Department on a case-by-case basis. All projects put forward by local authorities for consideration must comply with the requirements of the Public Spending Code (PSC) and my Department’s Transport Appraisal Framework (TAF).

In February this year I announced an Exchequer investment of €626 million in our regional and local roads across the State which includes an increase in funding of €20 million for road pavement and rehabilitation works.

In recognition of the fact that cost inflation is having a significant impact on the cost of delivering regional and local road annual programmes, local authorities were notified in July of a supplementary allocation of €22.5 million for their key road strengthening programmes.