Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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257. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount of funding allocated to all local authorities for repair and maintenance of regional and local road network, in each year from 2020 to 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44674/25]

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, 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 local authority.

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.

As regards the funding allocated to each local authority for the repair and maintenance of regional and local roads in each of the years 2020 to 2025, 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.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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258. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the percentage of roads in Ireland that constitute regional roads; the percentage of roads in each local authority in the country that constitute regional roads; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44675/25]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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259. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of kilometres of regional roads that exist in Ireland; and the number of kilometres of regional road that exist in each local authority in the country. [44676/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 258 and 259 together.

The Deputy has raised queries seeking data and information in relation to the lengths of regional roads across in each Roads Authority within the State. The following table contains the information requested. Note that while this is based on the most up to date data, there is a review currently underway by local authorities to update their road schedules.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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260. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of regional and local roads decommissioned over the past ten years, and to date in 2025. [44692/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I am not aware of any formal statutory basis to the ‘decommissioning of roads’.

Part II of the Roads Act 1993 sets out provisions in relation to the classification of roads and assignment of functions in relation to those roads.

Section 10 sets out how public roads are classified as national, regional or local roads and the Deputy may wish to be aware that unless a public road is specifically classified as a national or regional road it effectively defaults to a classification as a local road. The section also makes certain provisions in relation to the classification of national or regional roads that have been bypassed or realigned.

Section 11 allows a roads authority to declare certain roads as public roads.

Section 12 allows a road authority to abandon a public road and sets out the procures to be followed in relation to any such abandonment. This takes effect for a local road on the date of the road authority’s order for such &, in the case of a national/regional road, on the date of approval of said order from the Minister. It should be pointed out, however, that in practice, the only time a national or regional road is abandoned is when a part thereof is by-passed. Further, in this instance, as per S10(1)(d) & (e) of the Roads Act 1993, that section of the road is thereby reclassified by default as a local road. This has the effect that when this occurs, the decision on whether to abandon the by-passed section of the regional or national road reverts back to the road authority under S12. The Department does not keep records of roads abandoned by each individual road authority. The result of these factors, that in effect, all roads that are abandoned are local roads abandoned under the remit of the road authority, and the Department not holding these records, means there is no record of roads abandoned held by the Department.

Separate to those powers contained in part II of the Act, the Deputy may wish to be aware that section 73 provides powers to local authorities to extinguish a public right of way.