Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 June 2021
229. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Transport if the level of funding awarded to Tipperary County Council will be increased ahead of the next three year roadworks programme in order to assist the Council’s roads development to promptly improve the road network which has been ranked as 29th out of 31 local authorities by the National Oversight and Audit Commission for road condition. [30932/21]
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, where applicable.
I announced the 2021 regional and local road allocations earlier this year and all grant funding available to my Department has now been allocated.
There were major cutbacks in funding for the road network in general during the post 2008 recession. The National Development Plan (NDP), as it stands, provides for a gradual increase in funding for regional and local roads and there has been a significant increase in Exchequer funding particularly in the last four years. In this context, Tipperary County Council received a total allocation of €29,526,858 for 2021 which is an increase of approximately 60% when compared to 2017.
Funding is not yet at the level needed for the adequate maintenance and renewal of regional and local roads and so for this reason, the primary focus for capital investment continues to be the maintenance and renewal of the network with some limited investment in road improvement projects.
As regards the basis for allocating grants, within the budget available to the Department, funding is allocated on as fair and equitable a basis as possible to eligible local authorities. In this context, grants in the main grant categories are allocated based on the length of the road network within a local authority's area of responsibility with some account taken of traffic. It is envisaged that grants will continue to be made available on that basis.
Basing regional and local roads grant allocations on road conditions could result in an uneven distribution of State funding. For example, local authorities that allocate higher levels of own resources funding to regional and local roads will have a larger proportion of roads with a higher condition rating than those with lower levels of own resources funding. Basing allocations on road condition could therefore disincentivise local authorities from allocating own resources funding to roads maintenance.
The Department appreciates that, within the overall parameters set for the grant programme, local authorities might need to target funding at particular problem areas and there is sufficient flexibility in the structure of the grant programme to allow for this. It is also open to each local authority to allocate its own resources to priority areas. In this context the Department has supported the development of a road asset management system for regional and local roads – MapRoad - to provide the data needed for each local authority to manage its network as effectively as possible, including the prioritisation of works for inclusion in its maintenance and renewal works programme. The road pavement condition information generated by the MapRoad system forms the basis for the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) performance reports each year.
My Department will be issuing a Circular shortly to local authorities regarding the preparation and submission of the next 3 year 2022 -2024 Restoration Improvement Programme.
