Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 April 2024
151. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Transport if his attention has been drawn to the imbalance of roads funding applied to county councils (details supplied); whether his Department will undertake a review to ensure all councils are provided with the necessary funding to meet Departmental guidelines for road resurfacing; and whether funding will be released to Cork County Council to alleviate the shortfall in funding provided to date. [18600/24]
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 Councils' own resources, which are supplemented by State grants for regional and local roads.
As outlined in the 2024 Regional and Local Roads programme which I released on the 15th of February this year, the Government is strongly committed to protecting the existing regional and local road network. This network is fundamental in connecting people and places across the country.
Ireland's regional and local road network spans over 96,000kms. The network requires significant funding to ensure it remains fit for purpose, safe and resilience. As such, €658 million was allocated to Regional and Local Road Grants in 2024, with approximately 90% of this funding being directed towards maintenance and renewal works. This represents an overall grant funding allocation increase of 5%.
The three most significant grants for Councils in terms of monies and in terms of maintaining the road network in a serviceable condition are Restoration Maintenance, Restoration Improvement and Discretionary Grant. The amount that each local authority receives under these three grant programmes is based on the regional and local road length in each county or city area (taken as a proportion of the total road length and multiplied by the amount available for that programme) with some account taken of traffic. Cork County Council’s 2024 allocation is, therefore, consistent with other local authorities’ allocations.
There are some factors that affect each local authority’s Discretionary Grant allocation. The cost of salt for the previous winter, which is purchased centrally, is subtracted from the gross Discretionary Grant allocation to each authority to recoup the cost of salt used by each authority in the previous winter. In addition, Cork County Council is required to self-fund a portion of its roads programme due to the Council’s Local Property Tax receipts. This is also subtracted from the Council’s gross Discretionary Grant allocation.
Where projects are being implemented under the Specific or Strategic Grant Programmes, this can result in significant variances between the total amount of funding provided to local authorities with similar networks and this affects total grant per kilometre comparisons between different local authorities. In 2024, Cork County Council have been allocated €83,199,560 under the Regional and Local Road Grant Programme. In 2023, Cork County Council were allocated €71.3m for the maintenance and improvement of their regional and local roads network; the 2024 allocation represents a 16.62% increase on this figure.
As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the operation and management of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. This is also subject to the Infrastructure Guidelines and the necessary statutory approvals. Exchequer funding is allocated to local authorities through TII on an annual basis as a result of the estimates process. TII allocates funding from within this envelope for the purpose of fulfilling it's statutory duties and delivering Government policy in connection with national roads.
