Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 June 2023
175. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Transport if he will outline his Department’s position regarding an upgrade investment for the N24 Waterford to Limerick road; when such investment might happen; the scale of investment under consideration; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29765/23]
View answerThe Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), under the Roads Acts 1993-2015, and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design, improvement and upgrading of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TII ultimately delivers the National Roads Programme in line with Project Ireland 2040, the National Planning Framework and the NDP.
The Government has earmarked €5.1bn for capital spending on new national roads projects from 2021 to 2030 as part of the NDP. As the greater portion of this funding becomes available in the second half of the decade, this means that there is a constraint on the funding available for new projects this year.
Approximately €491m of exchequer capital funds have been provided for national roads through TII to local authorities in 2023. These allocations were announced by the Department of Transport and TII on the 16th of February 2023.
Having regard to the funding constraint outlined above, it was not possible to provide an allocation to all new national road projects in the NDP for 2023. However, the majority of projects have been allocated funding, including the N24 Waterford to Cahir, which has been allocated €2 million and the N24 Cahir to Limerick Junction which has been allocated €1 million.
With regard to Waterford to Cahir, the Route Options Selection process began in 2021 and it is now expected that a Preferred Option will be selected and published in Quarter 3 of this year.
In the case of Cahir to Limerick Junction, the preferred route was published in May 2022 and work is progressing on the Design and Evaluation phase. Since the start of the year, TII have allocated additional funding from within the overall funding envelope for new roads in 2023 to ensure the continued progression of this project.
As with all national roads projects included in the NDP, the delivery programme for these projects will be kept under review for 2024 and considered in terms of the overall funding envelope available to TII.
