Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 May 2013
26. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will report on the recent allocation of funding for repair works on local and regional roads; his views on whether a particular percentage of funding should be ringfenced by each local authority for annual road maintenance and upkeep in view of the state of many roads; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22667/13]
View answerThe 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 supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority. The Department has allocated a total of €350.462 million for regional and local roads in 2013, a reduction of almost €28 million on the 2012 funding. Increasingly, regional and local road grant funding to local authorities is being directed towards the maintenance and repair of regional and local roads and low cost safety works. This will remain the position in the coming years.
The Specific Improvement Grants Scheme is being discontinued from 2014 onwards in order to maximise the funding available for repair and strengthening work. In lieu of the Specific Improvement Grant Programme, applications will be sought in mid-2013 for minor bridge repair works (which is a subset of the current Specific Grant Programme) for 2014. This is in line with focusing moneys on road and bridge maintenance and strengthening. The grants programme is structured to allow Councils reasonable flexibility in using grants while also ensuring there are clear outputs for the moneys allocated in terms of length of road maintained or rehabilitated. In addition, I announced that local authorities would be afforded additional flexibility this year by allowing Councils to transfer resources into their discretionary grant.
Given the harsh reality of the financial position, the main focus will have to be on the maintenance and repair of roads. It will be necessary for local authorities to decide how best to manage their road budgets within the funding available. It is also important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement local authorities in their spending in this area. The contribution made by local authorities has fallen in recent years both in real and percentage terms. In 2008, local authorities provided over €405 million in own resources expenditure for works on regional and local roads, representing 40% of the total amount on these roads in 2008 including State grants. This own resources expenditure has dropped to €137 million in 2012 or 27% of the total expenditure on roads, with the State providing €377 million in 2012 or 73% of the total expenditure last year. I appreciate that many local authorities are trying to implement savings. It is important that sufficient priority is given by local authorities to road maintenance in own resources allocation.
