The first allocation of severe weather regional and local road funding has been made available to allow local authorities to carry out works as quickly as possible.

From a total of €106 million, announced by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe, at the end of January, €85m is to be made available to authorities immediately.

This allocation is intended to facilitate Local Authorities to press ahead with their work programmes as quickly as possible. There will be a particular focus on repair works, drainage and preventative works to address flooding on roads which have been subject to repeated incidents of flooding in recent years.

Further funding for regional and local roads will be allocated in May and this will give Local Authorities time to undertake further analysis of proposed measures including, where necessary, specialist bridge investigations, with a view to determining which measures can be implemented this year.

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It will also be possible for councils to carry out planning and feasibility studies to address difficult problems and charge the costs to the severe weather grant.

In addition, an allocation of €8 million is being provided to Transport Infrastructure Ireland for works on national roads and a further €8 million is being allocated to Irish Rail for repairs to rail infrastructure.

Minister Donohoe said: "I am pleased that the allocations for each Local Authority have been able to be determined in just a matter of weeks, as I know Local Authorities are keen to progress works as soon as possible. I would like to thank my officials for the work they have done in reviewing estimates and finalising allocations.

"Serious damage was caused to local and regional roads by the flooding that took place in recent months. This had a significant impact on communities of all sizes. The allocation made by Government sought to respond back to that and provide the financial support needed by Local Authorities to address the issue. I am satisfied that these allocations will be sufficient to repair all of damage caused to local and regional roads by recent weather events and to allow for significant preventative works to be carried out so that the destruction we have seen in recent months can be avoided for communities in the future."

(MH/LM)