Written answers

Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Road Projects

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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495. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount spent on road maintenance in each of the years 2020 to 2024 and to date in 2025 by local, regional and national roads, in tabular form. [42742/25]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh 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, 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, where applicable. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for the local authority.

Arising from the arrangements in place in relation to Local Property Tax receipts, the four Dublin Councils are self-funding for regional and local roads under the main road grant categories. Accordingly, these Councils do not feature in most of the grant programmes but are eligible for certain grants such as the training, speed limit signage and road condition survey grants and may apply for monies under the Strategic Grant programme.

Within the budget available for the regional and local road grant programme, 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 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 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.

As regards the funding allocated to and drawn down by local authorities for road maintenance in each of the years 2020 to 2024, details of the regional and local road 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.

To date in 2025, €200,792,972 has been drawn down by local authorities for maintenance works on regional and local roads.

As Minister for Transport I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the operation and management of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. This is also subject to the Infrastructure Guidelines and the necessary statutory approvals.

National roads allocations for years 2020 - 2024 are available at: . Full details of national roads allocations for 2025 are available on the TII website:.

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