Given its role in relation to national roads TII's input is taken into account in drafting capital expenditure programmes but TII does not have a policy role in relation to regional and local roads. As Minister, therefore, I have to take an overview of overall Departmental policy not alone regarding the national, regional and local road network but across all the sectors for which the Department is responsible in deciding capital expenditure priorities.
In light of the conclusions in the Department's SFILT, priority is being given to bringing maintenance and renewal expenditure back to the levels required to maintain our transport network adequately and this has meant that the scope for new projects is limited. Clearly, as Minister, I would like to be in a position to see more projects advance but I have to work within the budget available to me and this does impact on priorities.