Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy welcomed additional funding of £37.5 million for road maintenance and transport services in the Executive's June monitoring round.

The funding is reallocated from the Executive's in-year monitoring of public expenditure, which provides an opportunity to adjust current spending plans.

The Minister said: "Some £20 million of the reallocated budget will be spent on much needed resurfacing, targeted primarily on local roads.

"This additional funding will help to improve road conditions throughout Northern Ireland. It will also come as a welcome boost for contractors and assist them to plan their work load and retain a skilled workforce.

"A further £7.8million will be used to ensure the continuing provision of other essential maintenance activities and provide additional expenditure on road repairs, where possible.

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"While there is almost £70million of road maintenance planned this year, a further £50million is needed, annually, to maintain the structural integrity of the road network in its current condition."

Mr Kennedy added: "Additional resources are always welcome and can be fully utilised on Roads Service’s pre-determined priority road repair programme, which is ready to start, whenever funding becomes available."

Commenting on the £9.7million secured for improvements to bus and rail services, the Minister said: "This additional funding for Translink will assist in improving the levels of service delivered to both bus and rail users.

"£5.8million of this allocation will go towards the purchase of new buses, enabling Translink to continue to invest in upgrading its bus fleet. This funding supplements other investment in buses over recent years which has dramatically improved the level of accessibility and the average fleet age.

"£2million of the additional funding will support the Executive’s commitment on concessionary fares while £1.9million will be used for ducting on the Londonderry to Coleraine railway line. This will enable Translink to make best use of the planned closure of the track for the second part of this year and will run in parallel with the already announced track relay. The rescheduling of this work not only makes it more economical, by completing it during the closure, but has the added benefit for passengers of providing connectivity to the core network at the earliest opportunity."

(CD/GK)