The most comprehensive package of funding for non-national roads in the history of the State has been announced by the Government. A record £200 million is being made available for road and pavement improvements this year.
Announcing the package in Cork yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said the programme would go a long way towards improving secondary roads, which had for a long time been the subject of much misgiving and debate. (The term "non-national roads" excludes motorways and designated national roads. It covers much of the road network of rural Ireland.)
The Minister said that almost £200 million - an increase of 18 per cent on last year's figures - would be made available this year. This represented an expenditure of over £2,200 for every kilometre of non-national road.
He added that more than £118 million would be spent under the restoration programme for regional and local roads and that this would accelerate the programme, allowing county councils to undertake up to 90 per cent of their 1999 restoration projections in the present year.
Mr Dempsey said it was not acceptable that the "Celtic tiger" was still being forced, in many areas, to "tip-toe around potholes and disintegrating road pavements with sore paws rather than being free to bound ahead". The added provision of funds for the restoration programme was firm evidence of the Government's commitment to restore the network of regional and county roads to a satisfactory condition.
"Since the launch of this programme in mid-1995 to the end of 1997, more than 9,600 road schemes have been completed with over 15,600 km of road benefiting (or 18 per cent of the entire network of regional and county roads).
"The restoration programme is now producing the required results, both in terms of value for money and outputs, and local communities are beginning to see the fruits of the increased expenditure by the Government in this area. The 10-year programme is transforming the network and with it the quality of the lives of all those who depend on these roads," he added.
Mr Dempsey said the funds being made available for the restoration programme would enable significant progress to be made this year and that by the end of the year, a further 9.6 per cent of the entire network of regional and county roads would have been improved or maintained.
"This will mean that since mid1995, when the restoration programme was launched, over 14,800 schemes will have been completed, with over 224,000 km - or 27 per cent of the network - benefiting."
State grants available in the current year would be supplemented by an estimated £77 million from the local authorities' own resources - bringing the total expenditure on non-national roads to £277 million, representing an increase of over 16 per cent on last year's figure. Local authorities would also receive almost £51 million under various EU schemes.
The move was welcomed in Cork last night by the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Dan Wallace. He said the announcement of record funding for secondary roads would have a huge impact in the regions and the Government was to be applauded for its decision to make such funding available.