The Government is committed to the promotion and facilitation of active travel for daily journeys and encourages modal shift away from private car use through the provision of infrastructure such as cycle lanes, pedestrian infrastructure and secure bicycle parking. To this end, €360 million has been earmarked for walking and cycling every year to the end of the decade. Over €1 billion has already been invested since 2020 across all 31 local authority areas, with the majority of this funding dedicated to pedestrian infrastructure through the National Transport Authority’s (NTA’s) Active and Sustainable Transport Investment Programme.
In general, the main focus of active travel investment is to support high quality walking and cycling infrastructure, for everyday trips in villages, towns and cities with a view to promoting the greatest potential modal shift to active travel. Given the ramping up of activities over the last few years in the Active Travel area, the number of projects being progressed now exceeds the level of funding made available to the NTA.
Accordingly, the NTA is unable to fully fund all proposed Active Travel projects and has to prioritise certain projects over others in order to remain within its allocated budget. It should be noted that the tendency towards prioritisation of projects in urban areas does not preclude projects in more rural or low-density areas from receiving funding under the NTA’s Active and Sustainable Transport Investment Programme. While a project may not be selected by the NTA for funding in a particular year, it may be funded in subsequent years.
As part of the allocations determination, the NTA liaises with each local authority to fully understand the projects being proposed by the local authority and its considerations in terms of priorities. If a local authority therefore deems certain projects to have a vital role in terms of safety, connectivity or other criteria, it is important that they communicate this to the NTA during the annual allocations process.
While there is no dedicated funding mechanism for investment in footpaths alone, there is scope for local authorities to seek funding for pedestrian infrastructure through the NTA and Roads investment programmes and I would encourage local authorities to utilise these mechanisms going forward.
Separately, while the primary focus of investment on the regional and local road network is on its protection and renewal, the Discretionary Grant under the Regional and Local Road grant programme can be used by Councils for a range of works, including footpaths. It is, therefore, open to local authorities to fund these types of works from their Discretionary Grant allocation. Within the overall parameters set for the grant programme, local authorities might need to target funding at particular problem areas and there is sufficient flexibility in the structure of the grant programme to allow for this. It is also open to each local authority to allocate its own resources to priority areas.
