NRA to oversee local roads

RESPONSIBILITY FOR some of the administration of upkeep works on regional and local roads is to be transferred from the Department of Transport to the National Roads Authority (NRA).

The transfer in September will see two staff seconded from the department to the NRA.

Asked whether this was a precursor to the transfer of the overseeing of additional local road programmes to the NRA, the department said: “There is sufficient provision within the 1993 Roads Act to cater for the administrative arrangements as proposed.” It said the transfer is on a non-statutory basis and will lead to “increased efficiencies”.

While the NRA has responsibility for national routes, local authorities are responsible for maintenance and development of local and regional roads in their jurisdictions, for which they are allocated a budget.

The NRA said that the move would “avail of the natural synergies that will result from centring national, regional and local roads building/maintenance programmes”.

Road safety groups have been calling for a centralising of responsibility for local roads in a national agency, saying it would lead to improvements in road surface quality and end sharp differences between counties.

The department said in April that its annual capital provision for regional and local roads was being cut by €150 million to €448 million.