Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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164. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if urgent and favourable consideration will be given to a request from a local authority (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42324/24]

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 local authorities' own resources and are supplemented by State Road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for the Council.

Within the budget available for the regional and local road grant programme, the objective is to allocate funding to eligible local authorities on as equitable a basis as possible taking the length of the road network into account. The main focus of the grants continues to be the protection and renewal of the regional and local road network.

The 2024 regional and local road grants were notified to local authorities in February this year and Monaghan County Council received an allocation of over €17 million for the maintenance and improvement of their regional and local roads network; this represents an increase of over €800,000 compared to their 2023 allocation. On 31st May 2024, I announced additional funding of €30 million to local authorities through Restoration Improvement (RI) Grants following persistent rainfall over winter and spring. Monaghan County Council has been allocated €773,500 under this supplementary allocation.

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, having regard to the funding available to it from local and central sources as well as its particular priorities.

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 area, it is open to local authorities to prioritise investment on regional and local roads.