Ireland's Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey TD, has released €618 million in grants for local and regional roads in 2008. This is the fifth year of record funding for non-national roads.

However, he warned that there may be cuts next year if local authorities do not meet their share of the overall budget of almost €1 billion.

The Irish Department of Transport, which took over responsibility for non-national roads from the Department of the Environment in 2007, pointed out that despite a decade-long programme of restoration, increased usage has identified a new group of roads, which now need major remedial work.

The Minister said just over half of this year's allocation (€310 million) would be allocated for remedial work, with about €225 million of this earmarked for road reconstruction and €85 million for restoration maintenance. €188 million has been allocated to strategic roads central to the National Spatial Strategy. This tranche of funding covers roads that access strategic landbanks for housing and related development in or adjacent to the most densely populated urban areas and projects that support economic activity. This category includes roads that link to other transport infrastructure and which support agriculture, tourism, fishing and forestry.