Local and regional roads funding
Michael Healy-Rae warned of a funding crisis for Kerry roads maintenance and asked that commitments in the programme for Government be honoured. The Taoiseach said regional and local roads funding had increased substantially.
Despite commitments in the programme for Government, there is a major crisis in County Kerry with the budget for maintenance of our local and regional roads. We are about five months into this year. I wish to highlight that many areas have spent 80% of their maintenance budget and that will lead to a crisis in the fall of the year. I ask the Taoiseach and his Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to look seriously at the situation and to honour the commitment in the programme for Government that adequate funding for maintenance will be provided.
Comment on this
I do not have the exact figures in front of me but overall there has been a very substantial increase in the roads budget this year for regional and local roads. I know some local authorities are behind schedule in the works they intended to do because of the bad weather, but there has been a very substantial increase.