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Road Improvement Schemes

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 November 2013

Thursday, 7 November 2013

Questions (4)

Timmy Dooley

Question:

4. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the impact on the National Roads Authority and local authorities' road maintenance programmes of the reduction in revenue allocated in budget 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47217/13]

View answer

Oral answers (5 contributions)

The ongoing reduction in capital spend by the Government, particularly in the Minister's Department with regard to the road network, is affecting road safety. Will the Minister outline the discussions he has had with the National Roads Authority, NRA, and his ministerial colleague in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government on the impact of this reduction in capital spending on the road network? Has he considered the impact on road safety in particular?

One might get sick of saying some of this stuff. As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport I have responsibility for overall policy and funding for the national roads programme. The implementation of individual national road projects is a matter for the National Roads Authority, NRA, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. 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 from their own resources, supplemented by State road grants.

The amount of public funding available for the road network has reduced significantly over the last number of years and the amount of money available does not match the work that needs to be done. In these circumstances the NRA and local authorities have to focus primarily on the maintenance and rehabilitation of roads and to try to use available resources as effectively as possible. It is worth noting, however, that an additional €50 million under a mini-stimulus plan was provided to local authorities in June this year for works on regional and local roads, and much good work was done over the summer and autumn with that money. A further €50 million has been announced for next year. This funding for next year means that the intended cut of €116 million under the roads capital budget for 2014 will now be a smaller adjustment of €66 million. All this will not come from the maintenance side as the specific and strategic improvement grants have been suspended, although there will be a further cut to maintenance of local and regional roads next year. This remains a very challenging reduction but every effort will be made to make the most out of the very limited resources.

Funding for the NRA will increase next year, with capital funding increasing from €278 million to €308 million and current funding increasing from €40.4 million to €41 million. That amounts to more than €20 million of an increase for the NRA next year, taking account of the fact that work is under way at the Newlands Cross and N11 sites. It is hoped that work will start on the Gort to Tuam project in the new year.

I thank the Minister for clarifying the numbers, and as he indicated, that takes account of the fact that a number of new projects are coming on board. It is greenfield development. I am concerned about the existing road network, including the sections which are the responsibility of local authorities. The Minister has outlined his position on that delineation of duties. Ultimately, the Exchequer is responsible for the collection of taxes and the allocation of moneys to local authorities and the NRA. It is not adequate to take a hands-off approach and indicate it is the business of these bodies alone, as we know times are tough and they must get on with it.

Has the Minister sought an impact analysis of the reduction in spending and the capacity of bodies to maintain roads? Has he considered whether the deterioration in road infrastructure could possibly be leading to an increase in deaths on the road? I do not want to make a political point about this but the Minister does not need me to tell him that year on year there has been a significant increase in the number of people killed on the roads this year. It is a worrying trend and we must consider all the potential causes for same.

I can guarantee that I have an ongoing battle to find money to repair roads and I am of the view that it is more important to maintain existing infrastructure than build new infrastructure. The Minister of State, Deputy Ring, is very active in that space as well, and particularly with regard to county roads. There has been some success: the State grants for regional and local roads last year amounted to just over €400 million and the previous year the funding was €377 million. I do not wish to be boastful but there are not many Ministers who can say that budgets are being increased. Local authorities have got the message on own resource expenditure and have put their own money into roads, as last year they put €151 million into such projects as opposed to €136 million the previous year. That allowed much work to be done last summer and autumn to improve roads.

With regard to road safety, we had a meeting on Monday of the high-level ministerial committee on road safety, which involves me and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, as well as gardaí and other parties. We examined the increases in road deaths this year and there is no clear reason to explain it, although we have many statistics. Interestingly, although road deaths have increased in every region in Ireland, there is one exception in the west, where there has been a significant reduction in road deaths. People tell me that is where the roads are the worst nonetheless.

There is nobody left there.

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