THE GOVERNMENT has ordered local authorities to halt almost €500 million worth of spending on local and regional roads until further notice.
The edict was issued to local authority officials late last month, but has not yet been brought formally to the attention of councillors in some authorities. Under it, local authorities are forbidden from spending on road improvements unless each project is sanctioned by the Department of Finance.
The curbs will not affect major motorway construction handled by the National Roads Authority – though, even there, restrictions will be imposed in next month’s budget.
In its circular, the Department of Transport told authorities that Finance wanted “to have the maximum discretion” about capital spending during the remainder of this year. The restrictions will not affect basic maintenance, but everything else – such as road-widening, the removal of dangerous bends and small bypasses – will be hit.
Transport is compiling information for Finance outlining the commitments local authorities have entered into for road improvements this year, and pending pledges.
“New contractual commitments will now require prior approval of the Department of Finance. Accordingly, pending compilation of the data by the department and securing the necessary Department of Finance sanction, no further contractual commitments on foot of regional and local road grants may be entered into by your authority,” the circular declared.
Local authorities were given a grant of €607 million in February: €481 million of this was due to be spent on capital works, with the rest going on basic maintenance.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, who assumed responsibility for local and regional roads last year from the Department of the Environment, at the time said “expenditure of these grants is now a matter for each individual authority”.
The edict will have serious effects since many local authorities manage road improvement works themselves, and hire in private contractors when and where necessary.
Last night, the Association of County and City Councils said the circular was “but one of a series of stealth moves being made by the Department of Transport and the Department of the Environment”.
The association’s vice-chairman, Kilkenny-based Labour councillor Michael O’Brien, said local authorities had, in recent years, begun to spread the cost of many major local road projects over a number of years.
The Government’s latest move threatens to leave many projects in no man’s land, including the bypass planned for one of the country’s worst traffic black-spots, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.
