2026-01-15

101. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Transport the funding allocated for local road restoration to Cavan and Monaghan County Councils in 2025; and the funding allocation to both councils in 2026. [1246/26]

I have been in elected politics a long time and I have to say that the state of local roads generally has never been as bad in all of my time. It is evident not enough funding is being provided to local authorities. Will the Minister indicate how much funding was allocated to local authorities in my area, Cavan and Monaghan county councils, last year? What is the proposed allocation for 2026?

I know this matter is of great interest to the people of Cavan and Monaghan. I met with councillors from there before Christmas. At the outset, I should state that the improvement and maintenance of the regional and local road network is the statutory responsibility of the local authority, in accordance with the Roads Act. Works on these roads are funded from the council's own resources and are supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for each local authority. Indeed, Cavan and Monaghan do a very good job. Although they have been constrained by resources, they have got the resources every year they are required. As regards the basis for allocating grants, within the budget available to the Department, grant funding is allocated on the basis of grant programmes and not on the basis of the category of road. The allocation of funding across specific roads, or across categories, is something we get submissions from local authorities about, which we assess. The main regional and local road grant programmes are targeted at specific policy objectives, including pavement sealing to protect the road surface from water damage, road strengthening based on pavement condition rating to lengthen the life of the roads - good work has been done in Monaghan, in particular, on that using new technologies - and a discretionary grant that allows for a range of activities, including pothole repairs, edge strengthening and renewal of signs, etc. These three grant programmes account for most of the grant funding and are allocated based primarily on the length of the road network in a particular local authority area. Apart from a requirement that 15% of the road strengthening grant is spent on regional roads, the allocation of funding to different categories of road is entirely a matter for decision by each local authority. Having said that, in 2025, Cavan received an allocation of €19.193 million, which was an increase of nearly €1.8 million on its 2024 allocation, and Monaghan received an allocation of €18 million, which was an increase of just short of €1.8 million on the previous year's allocation. I am awaiting the draft allocations for roads. I expect to have that in the next week. I will then go through that, taking into account working with officials, to allocate that and get it out quicker than we did last year. There was a slight delay because of the election and road allocations did not go out until around March. We intend to get them out in January of this year.

I agree with the Minister on two fronts. Local authority staff in Cavan and Monaghan are doing a huge amount of work and are getting efficient use out of the funding that is allocated in terms of the road programme. The second area is that councillors across all political parties and all local Oireachtas Members agree that the funding in place is nowhere near sufficient in order to deal with the issues. There are a number of different problems. The road network deteriorated as a result of cutbacks following the financial crash and costs have increased substantially. The increases we have seen, even in recent years, come nowhere close to addressing that. In Monaghan, for example, in real terms, the extra allocation was about €1 million last year vis-à-vis the two years in terms of actual funding provided. Well over €400,000 of that - it was actually closer to €500,000 in Monaghan - had to be spent on speed limit signs because of the new speed limits. The situation is that more roads are in need of urgent repair than ever before. The Minister said he cannot give the actual figures. Will there be a substantial increase in the 2026 allocations?

Every local authority is looking for additional funding. Last year, we provided significant additional funding, which the Deputy acknowledged. We intend to provide a further increase in funding this year. I am not being evasive; I cannot give him that figure. I need time with colleagues to be able to go through the draft allocations, which I will look at. We take into account the submissions and feedback we receive from local authorities. I have met with most, though not all, local authorities in relation to the roads programme. I could not meet all of them in the short space of time that I had. Both Cavan and Monaghan do an excellent job. I know both local authorities well and the staff therein. Monaghan, in particular, has been to the forefront of using new technologies for road repair. It has got additional funding for that and is one of the counties that has piloted that programme. I commend its chief executive, Robert Burns, and its director of services on the work they have done there. This will be in the next few weeks. I intend to get this out, if I can, in January. I will obviously share that with Deputies. We will get the allocations out to the local authorities so they can continue the good work they are doing. This will not all be fixed in one year.

No, but here is the difficulty. I have visited roads, including one that is close to the town of Ballybay and one close to Castleblayney, in recent weeks. The roads are in a terrible condition. From dealing with the local authority, the best it can do in the short term is patching work, which in many ways is economically crazy but it has to be done. The best-case scenario under the current trajectory is that it could take five or even six years before those roads will be properly restored. Here is the frustration of people in those areas: they have seen their cost of insurance increase; they are paying their road tax; they have seen the cost of petrol and diesel being increased by the Government on an annual basis; and, for those who have to travel to Dublin or elsewhere, their toll charges have increased. They are asking themselves what they are getting for all of this, if they cannot even drive to their local school without risking bursting the suspension on their car. I know the Minister cannot give the precise figures. Will there be a substantial increase in road funding so we can ensure that the programme for road maintenance and restoration will be accelerated in the coming months and years?

We cannot just look at this in isolation. There is the NDP and the projects we are advancing for new roads and new national roads across the country. In Cavan-Monaghan, there is the trans-European transport network, TEN-T, road network, which is critically important in the north west. There have been unprecedented levels of investment. There will be a further increase. The Deputy's definition of "substantial" and mine might be different, but I do not have a figure yet. I do not have the draft report. When I do, it will be considered. We will do that. We will work with our local authorities across the country, which do a good job in this regard. The funding increases last year were significant. It has been good to see the local authorities being able to deploy those resources. More work needs to be done. Deputy Carthy would also acknowledge that this situation will not be fixed in one year. We have got to be able, on a phased basis and in a structured way, to continue increasing that funding. We are coming through, but are still in, a high-inflation environment where more money has been allocated but, in some instances, it has really just covered that inflationary amount. That has to be managed well, and it will be. In the coming weeks, we will be announcing the allocations.