Comment & Analysis: If road funding announced last week is the dawn of a new era, is this new era one of substance or bravado? As covered in a separate article today, the funding was set by the last government despite it being billed as a “post-Greens splurge” when that’s not the case.
IrishCycle.com’s data (also under this article) shows that the increase is hardly that much of a splurge.
Given that the last government allocated the funding increase, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can both claim credit for the overall increase. The Healy-Raes and other independents cannot claim credit for the total figure (even if it is possible that they did influence the allocation to Kerry etc).
Last week, a Department of Transport press release included a quote from Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, which said: “My main priority is the ongoing maintenance and renewal of the regional and local road network, alongside strategic investment in developing and improving the road infrastructure network.”
In 2021, the then minister Eamon Ryan was quoted in that year’s equivalent press release as follows: “Our main priority in 2021 is the maintenance and renewal of our existing regional and local road network. This type of routine maintenance is fundamental to safeguarding our road infrastructure and keeping the network in a good condition.”
There is not a whole lot between what both said when talking about this funding, which largely relates to maintenance. But when your road network is just short of 100,000km for a population of just 5 million people, it should be every transport minister’s priority to maintain that network.
While the funding was allocated by the last government, this is not really the “dawning of a new era”, as the Kerry brothers put it. But there has been signalling from the current Government that the departure of the Greens will mean more road funding.
Minister Dara Calleary said on Midwest Radio that it’s “super news” that his county of Mayo was being allocated €40 million. As the item went on, he added: “I’m not totally blind either. We could spend €80m in Mayo and still need to spend money given the size of the county, and we have also seen with recent weather events that weather events are causing more destruction to our road network.”
Even if a large percentage of roads are made up of smaller roads, it can be hard to fully grasp how large our road network is compared to the population.
If every household in Ireland stood on the road network an equal distance from the next household, they would be around 19 metres apart from each other.
If every household across all of the UK did the same, they would only be 6 metres apart.
Ireland has a huge amount of roads to maintain. And the budget slashing of the last downturn and construction maintenance have not helped.
Shortfalls over the last decade can have a wider accumulative effect, where you need more and more funding for the basics because things fell apart more than if the funding was maintained (short-term gain for long-term pain).
More broadly, but in the above context, it’s still unclear how much of the “built roads” mantra will materialise.
Many factors will come into play, including the backlog of maintenance, the fact large public transport projects have planning and cities are in desperate need of them (many of them planned for decades), while some of the larger roads projects are years away from planning will complicate things, as may world events including the impact of Trump’s tariffs and other actions.
Public transport and active travel are not just “green” things; they are vital to stopping our cities from stagnating from filling up with cars and are key for quality of life.
Even the Green’s 2:1 funding split between public transport and roads allowed for road building. That idea it didn’t is a myth, and the idea that everybody was expected to use the bus or cycle is one handed down from years of propaganda. Life can include a mix of things.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael both like to play to rural audiences, but the jury is out if that populist bravado will win out over the ability to keep Irish towns and cities moving.
Headline local and regional road funding
| Year | Total funding | % increase | % of construction inflation |
| 2018 | €417m | NA | |
| 2019 | €483m | 15.8% | |
| 2020 | €525m | 8.7% | |
| 2021 | €555m | 5.7% | 12-13% |
| 2022 | €607m | 9.4% | 5-6% |
| 2023 | €626m | 3.1% | |
| 2024 | €658m | 5.1% | |
| 2024 (extra) | €30m* | NA | |
| 2024 (total) | €688m | 9.9% | |
| 2025 | €713m | 3.63-8.3%** |
* extra funding for regional and local roads announced in May 2024
** cannot be compared fully until next year in case there is extra funding this year too
Breakdown of funding when announced
| 2021 | 2023* | 2024 | 2025 | |
| road pavement strengthening | €260m | €298 m | €303m | €330m |
| preventative surface dressing work | €72m | €75m | €75m | €75m |
| maintenance and strengthening works for which local authorities have discretion in the selection of roads; | €84m | €84m | €84m | €84m |
| Specific and Strategic Regional and Local Roads Projects | €24m | €70m | €70m | €70m |
| bridge rehabilitation works | €18m | €16m | €16m | €18m |
| safety improvement works | €19m | €11m | €11m | €13m |
| drainage works | €20m | €20m | €18m | €18m |
| Community Involvement Schemes | €16m | €13m | €13m | €15m |
| completion of Active Travel projects (carryover from July 2020 Stimulus funding. | €13m | na | na | na |
| climate change adaptation/resilience works | €23m | €16m | €16m | €16.5m |
| Minor Improvement Works | €4m | |||
| signage | ??? | ??? | €1m | ??? |
| severe weather works | ??? | ??? | €22.5m | ??? |
| Former National Roads | ??? | €12m | €12m | €12m |
| Miscellaneous grants are also provided for a number of pilot initiatives, salt purchase, training, asset management and conducting pavement surveys | €12m | €11m | €16.5m | ??? |