Councils to retain remit for local and regional roads

ROAD MANAGEMENT:MANAGEMENT POWERS in relation to local and regional roads will not transfer from local authorities to the National Roads Authority (NRA), the Department of Transport said yesterday.

Department assistant secretary general Pat Langan said a circular clarifying the roads authority’s role in local and regional roads would be issued to city and county councils.

Acknowledging there had been some confusion on the matter, Mr Langan told the Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Local Government it was never intended to remove statutory powers for regional and local roads from local authorities.

He said responsibility for the management of regional and local roads “grants” would transfer from the department to the roads authority.

In addition, he said the roads authority would be able to offer councils advice on certain design standards and share its tendering expertise. But he emphasised “the NRA is not being given any new statutory powers similar to those it holds in relation to national roads”.

The committee was told the drafting of local authority roads programmes would continue to be a matter for local authorities, who would continue to hire contractors and fix potholes as at present.

In future, the local authorities would submit their applications for roads grants to the roads authority instead of the Department of Transport.

But the role of the Minister in making the final funding decisions and being answerable to the Dáil remained unchanged, Mr Langan said.

In handling the grant allocations, the roads authority would simply be carrying out an “administrative function” for the department, he added.

Chief executive of the NRA, Fred Barry, said his organisation had certain expertise in relation to road design and repair and maintenance tendering, but this would “not be imposed”.

Mr Barry said the authority had “neither the people nor the intention” to engage “on the management of potholes”.

Earlier, however, the insistence by the NRA that it would not get involved in “representations and meetings with deputations” on the subject of local and regional road maintenance had surprised some members of the committee.

Ciarán Lynch TD said there was a “very, very strong impression that it represented a diminution of democracy”.