Fianna Fáil has called on the Transport Minister to review the funding for road maintenance next year, after the Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) wrote to local authorities warning them that the Ordinary Maintenance Allocation for roads will fall by 30% in 2018.

The party's spokesperson on Transport, Tourism and Sport, Robert Troy TD, said the overall national road current expenditure budget for 2018 is set to drop by 15% compared to 2017.

Mr Troy urged Minister Shane Ross to review the issue as a "matter of urgency".

He said: "I raised this issue with Minister Ross at the Oireachtas Transport Committee and he said he wasn't even aware of the cutbacks and would have to get back to me on it with further information. It's an astonishing situation.

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"TII has acknowledged the significant impact that the scale of the reduction in Ordinary Maintenance Allocation will have on the delivery of services. There is no doubt about it, this cutback will have a damaging impact on our roads. Road users can expect to see more potholes and increased damage to their cars and higher repair costs in 2018.

"Road maintenance budgets have already suffered from significant cutbacks in recent years and this has had a detrimental impact on transport infrastructure. Minister Ross should be dramatically increasing the funding allocated for roads maintenance, but instead he is overseeing the implementation of damaging cutbacks.

"Where exactly is the additional money he secured in Budget 2018 actually going towards? It's perfectly clear from the TII that it is not going towards roads maintenance budgets."

(CD/JP)