Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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140. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will make additional resources available to local authorities in 2024 for the community involvement scheme, in view of the inclement weather to date 2024 and its impact on rural roads; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23347/24]

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

In 2018, the Department introduced ring-fenced funding for Community Involvement Schemes (CIS). The purpose of the CIS is to facilitate local community participation in the repair of local roads. The focus of the programme is on the repair of more lightly trafficked public roads which might not be high on the list of a local authority's annual roadwork programme. Under the scheme a local community can contribute in money or in kind, for example by making labour or machinery available.

While community contributions in the range 15% to 30% had been required up to 2021, depending on the mix between works and monies, the contribution rate has now been reduced to a minimum of 10% for monetary contributions and 20% for works contribution. This is more in line with Local Improvement Scheme contribution rates.

In order to allow for sufficient planning and applications for this scheme, local authorities are invited to apply for funding for CIS projects for a two-year programme with the latest round of applications received in 2023 for the 2024/2025 period.

Grant allocations for 2024 were issued in February this year with €13m being made available to local authorities under the CIS grant.

The CIS is purely voluntary and does not take away from the statutory responsibilities of each road authority. It is intended to be an extra option, where suitable, for local authorities and communities to address issues on tertiary roads where needed.

It is important to reiterate that the annual programme of works is decided by the local authorities, and the Department has no role in this process. All funding for regional and local roads has, to date, been fully allocated.