While extra cash that was expected for road repairs in the Irish Republic after the 'big freeze' has been vetoed, that's not the case over the border.

Irish Transport Minister Noel Dempsey said any extra money would instead have to come from existing budgets, shattering hopes by builders of fresh road repair contracts.

In contrast, it has been revealed that an additional £10.5m will be spent on road resurfacing and £4.5m will be spent on repairs and patching in NI.

The figure was revealed this week by the NI Department of Regional Development as the thaw began to clear roads that had been iced up and frozen for nearly three weeks.

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The cash was found in response to a December 'monitoring round' plus some internal adjustments.

The good news from Stormont came as authorities in Dublin were forced to admit that the impact of heavy snow, sub-zero temperatures and aggressive gritting has left many roads badly damaged or pot-holed.

Mr Dempsey said it was up to local authorities how they prioritised using the €400m given to them for such occurrences and that extra cash was unlikely despite the weather conditions being the worst of their kind for almost half a century.

The Minister said that councils were warned each year to hold back certain funds for weather-related spending, adding that there is no emergency fund for severe weather. "People will have to work within the allocations that they have been given," he said.

(BMcC/GK)