Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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160. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will increase the funding allocations to Cavan and Monaghan County Councils for local roads resurfacing in 2025. [34012/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority and Exchequer funding is intended to supplement local authorities’ own resources.

On 14th February 2025 I announced an Exchequer investment of €713 million in our regional and local roads across the State which represents an overall increase of over 8% in funding this year. The main focus of the grants continues to be the protection and renewal of the regional and local road network.

Within the budget available to my Department, grant funding 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 of road 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 on pavement condition rating to lengthen the life of roads and a Discretionary Grant Scheme which allows for a specified range of activities including winter maintenance. These 3 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 entirely a matter for decision by each local authority.

In 2025, Cavan County Council received an allocation of €19,193,150 which is an increase of €1,752,840 on their 2024 allocation and Monaghan County Council received an allocation of €18,008,350 which is an increase of €1,751,255.