Minister Donohoe makes allocation of €85m in severe weather regional & local road funding

Immediate allocation will facilitate Local Authorities in carrying out works as quickly as possible

Remaining funding will be allocated in May 2016

At the end of January, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe TD, announced that, based on initial estimates received from Local Authorities and transport agencies, he had agreed with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin TD, that funding of €106 million would be provided this year to address storm and flooding damage that was caused to transport infrastructure in recent months.

Following further contact with Local Authorities and transport agencies, Minister Donohoe has confirmed today (Friday) that €85 million is being allocated immediately to Local Authorities for works to be carried out on regional and local roads.  This allocation is intended to facilitate Local Authorities to press ahead with their work programmes as quickly as possible. There will be a particular focus on repair works, drainage and preventative works to address flooding on roads which have been subject to repeated incidents of flooding in recent years.

Further funding for regional and local roads will be allocated in May and this will give Local Authorities time to undertake further analysis of proposed measures including, where necessary, specialist bridge investigations, with a view to determining which measures can be implemented this year.  In this context, it will be possible for Local Authorities to carry out planning and feasibility studies to address difficult problems and charge the costs to the severe weather grant.

In addition an allocation of €8 million is being provided to Transport Infrastructure Ireland for works on national roads and a further €8 million is being allocated to Irish Rail for repairs to rail infrastructure.

Minister Donohoe said: ‘I am pleased that the allocations for each Local Authority have been able to be determined in just a matter of weeks, as I know Local Authorities are keen to progress works as soon as possible. I would like to thank my officials for the work they have done in reviewing estimates and finalising allocations’.

“Serious damage was caused to local and regional roads by the flooding that took place in recent months. This had a significant impact on communities of all sizes. The allocation made by Government sought to respond back to that and provide the financial support needed by Local Authorities to address the issue. I am satisfied that these allocations will be sufficient to repair all of damage caused to local and regional roads by recent weather events and to allow for significant preventative works to be carried out so that the destruction we have seen in recent months can be avoided for communities in the future.”