The recent budget slashed €88 million off the allocation for regional and rural roads. These local and regional roads are the arteries that connect many parts of the country and are highly trafficked routes. These roads represent 96,000 km of the total 101,000 km of our public road network in Ireland, carrying over 54% of the traffic, but have remained chronically underfunded since the financial crash. Poor quality roads can be a major cause of concern to communities, directly impacting economic development in our regions and rural areas. Ongoing underinvestment in these roads has now created a potential crisis, which the Government conveniently chooses to ignore.

Analysis done by the Department of Transport under the Strategic Framework for Investment in Land Transport, which was published in 2015 and updated in 2019, conservatively estimated that investment of at least €630 million per annum was needed to maintain the regional and local road networks in a steady-state condition. This means that without this minimal investment our road network will continue to deteriorate each year.

My constituency of Cork South-West has one of the worst road networks in the country, according to an independent report by the All Island Research Observatory, AIRO, which was carried out by Maynooth University and commissioned by Cork County Council. It stated that €750 million was needed to bring the roads in County Cork alone up to the standards set out by Engineers Ireland. It also stated that under current Government funding for County Cork roads alone, it will take 52 years to bring our roads up to the standards set in other counties. This report was carried out last year before the Government slashed the roads budget this year.

The National Oversight and Audit Commission 2020 report states that a staggering 33% of local primary roads require urgent structural defect rehabilitation, with 23% of the county's regional road networks being in a similar shocking condition. According to the AIRO report, County Cork has the highest level of structurally unsound roads in the State. This should have warranted a major investment in regional roads in the 2022 budget rather than the cuts announced. Despite this stark warning and many years of serious underfunding for roads since the financial crisis, only €561 million has been allocated for local and regional roads in 2022. This application represents a deep cut of €23 million from the 2021 allocation and is at least €70 million below what is needed just to maintain the existing network.

Additionally, the national roads budget has been reduced by €65 million for 2022. Taken together this means an enormous €88 million or 7% cut, meaning any new capital investment projects are off the table. When the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, kicked ball around Páirc Uí Chaoimh recently before they announced funding for roads for decades to come, were they aware of this independent report carried out by AIRO on behalf of Cork County Council indicating serious under-resourcing of our roads in west Cork? If so, why was no plan announced for any of our urgent road projects in west Cork?

I am not sure those figures for the transport budget and the budget for roads in 2022 are correct. I will need to go back to office later and check on them. As far as I am aware, we have found additional funding for the remainder of this year for local and regional roads. That is coming from the Department of Transport budget, which will not be fully spent this year and will need to be carried over in part into next year. We also found additional funding for the local improvement scheme for laneways and rural roads in particular.

That is coming through from the Department led by the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys. We must maintain that funding in the years ahead, given the long list of projects that are still awaiting funding.

As the Deputy acknowledges, we have many roads in Ireland relative to our population and much of that is down to our settlement patterns, which are quite dispersed and not as concentrated as they might be in other countries. That makes them particularly difficult to maintain, but we should maintain them because motorists also pay much tax, whether it is motor tax, vehicle registration tax or the tax on diesel or petrol. Much of that should be used to maintain and improve our roads.

Local authorities can help as well and no local authority should consider itself entirely dependent on central government for funding for roads. They have the capacity to use money from the local property tax and commercial rates to improve their roads and it is appropriate that they should do so. Some money should come from central government but there should also be money coming from local resources. It is important that the two of these elements happen rather than just one.

On the question of roads programmes in the round, the national development plan, as referenced by the Deputy, provides for a 2:1 split on spending on new transport projects, with two thirds spent on public transport and one third spent on new roads. In the past year, we have seen some significant new road projects go to construction. For example, we have the next phase at Dunkettle, outside Cork city, which the Deputy knows well, and the Moycullen bypass just west of Galway city, which many people here also know well. There is also the Moyross road outside Limerick city and the Turlough to Scramogue road, which is an upgrade of the N5. Despite claims to the contrary, in the past year alone five major road projects have been signed off by the Department of Transport and its Minister. We expect to see further road projects being signed off in the year ahead.

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. The budget slashed €88 million from regional and rural roads for the coming year. Every time the Tánaiste and his colleagues make announcements on roads, west Cork is always omitted. I remind the Tánaiste that we pay motor tax down there too. He should not think we are going around without taxing our vehicles in west Cork. The funds should come back there as they do everywhere else.

I asked the Tánaiste a question a while ago. Before he, the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, sat down and approved the recent announcement of massive funding, had they read the AIRO report? This was an independent report initiated by Cork County Council. It is vital that the Tánaiste give a straight answer on this. If they had read the report, it would have made for stark reading.

When they announced their plans for Ireland at Páirc Uí Chaoimh recently, did they include the completion of the Bandon southern relief road, which has been awaited and promised for decades but not delivered? Did they announce plans for a full northern relief road for Bandon so the town can thrive as a business location? Did they give the green light for the Innishannon and Bantry bypasses or funding for long-awaited passing bays on the N71, the Bandon-Clonakilty-Skibbereen road, or the R586, the Ballineen-Dunmanway-Drimoleague road? I did not hear any announcement for these roads but if I am wrong, will the Taoiseach tell me or the country when one or all of these projects for west Cork will start?

I appreciate that these are important questions and these are important projects for people living in west Cork but that question is probably best put to the Minister for Transport rather than me, as he would have the up-to-date information. I will certainly let him know the Deputy raised this question today in the Dáil.

I am very aware of the strategic framework for land transport investment report as it was commissioned some time ago, when I was the Minister with responsibility for transport. I am familiar with it and have read it.