Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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170. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the funding provided to each local authority for the purpose of local road resurfacing and maintenance in each year 2020-2024 inclusive, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28339/24]

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 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 initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for the Council.

Arising from the arrangements in place in relation to Local Property Tax receipts, the four Dublin Councils are largely self-funding for works on regional and local roads since 2015 and my Department no longer provides grants to these Councils under the main regional and local road grant categories.

Within the budget available to my Department for regional and local road grants, grant funding for maintenance purposes is allocated on the basis of grant programmes and not on the basis of the category of road. The allocation of funding across specific roads or across categories is a matter for each local authority, having regard to the funding available to it from local and central sources as well as its particular priorities.

The main regional and local road grant programmes are focussed on specific policy objectives i.e. surface sealing to protect the road surface from water damage, road strengthening based pavement condition rating to lengthen the life of roads and a Discretionary Grant which allows for a specified range of activities including winter maintenance. These three grant programmes account for most of the grant funding and are allocated taking into account the length of the road network and traffic factors in a particular local authority area. Apart from a requirement that 15% of the road strengthening grant is spent on regional roads, the allocation of funding to different categories of road is a matter for decision by each local authority.

Details of the regional and local road grant allocations and payments to local authorities are outlined in the regional and local road allocations and payments booklets which are available on the Oireachtas Digital Library.