Government spending on regional and local roads cut by €200m

GOVERNMENT SPENDING on regional and local roads is to be cut by almost €200 million to €411 million this year, down from €607 million in 2009.

Announcing the cut, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said local authorities were free to add their own money to the grants, and said that since 1997 the Government had provided more than €6 billion in grants for local and regional roads.

He said for 2010 the priority would be to tackle urgently required repairs due to the recent cold spell and protect the investment of recent years.

Grants would be switched from major new schemes towards the maintenance and rehabilitation of roads damaged by the adverse weather conditions, the bill for which, he said, was estimated at some €188.8 million.

In addition, a programme of planned rehabilitation work on regional and local roads would be deferred to give local authorities greater flexibility to deal with urgent repairs.

Under the new allocations, maintenance grants will amount to €111 million; €62.2 million is being provided for 138 specific schemes, including bridges; €6.3 million for safety improvement works; and €4.9 million for regional road signposting.

The €6.3 million for safety improvement works compares with €8.6 million last year. A “local improvements scheme” has been reduced from €15 million last year to €5 million this year.

The Minister stressed the importance of local authorities allocating a sufficient portion of their own resources for the improvement and maintenance of the regional and local roads network.

“State grants are a supplement to expenditure by the local authorities. All authorities need to maintain and even increase their own expenditure on their road networks, and it is particularly important that local authorities carefully reassess their planned road programmes for 2010,” he said.

However, the allocations were immediately criticised by Fine Gael, whose transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd said many roads would “deteriorate further as a result of ongoing underfunding”.

“This is a massive cut in funding for the very roads which were worst affected in the big freeze. Minister Dempsey should be investing in these roads, many of which are now in an appalling condition.”

He said the funding had implications for road safety and would impact on local communities which depended on them for access. Local economies would be affected. “Many regional and local roads will deteriorate further as a result of ongoing underfunding. This cutback sheds new light on why Minister Dempsey stayed away during the big freeze: he simply didn’t care.”

Among the top local authorities to receive grant aid are Cork County Council, which has been allocated €42 million; Donegal County Council, which has been allocated €26 million; Galway County Council, which is to get €23 million; and Mayo County Council, which is to get €20 million. In contrast, Carlow County Council is to get just €5.6 million; Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown €5.63 million; and Longford €5.8 million. The five borough councils are to get less than €500,000 each.