As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. The planning, design and implementation of individual road projects (such as the N26) is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) formerly the National Roads Authority (NRA) under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.
Decisions on road projects included in the Capital Plan were framed by the conclusions reached in my Department’s Strategic Investment Framework for Land Transport. This report highlighted the importance of maintenance and renewal of transport infrastructure together with targeted investments to enhance the existing network through improving connections to seaports, to poorly served regions, to large-scale employment sites, and addressing critical safety issues.