Roads budget with the new gov

The PfG can mention it as many time as it wants. I refer to my last reply to marno. Changing everyone over to EVs is what the Greens wanted but it won't be enough be enough without public transport investment. With an increasing population is only getting is only going to get worse. As I said I look forward to seeing it all done..rails, roads, houses but it's a huge challenge. The glib comment from the government spokesman that there will be less cycle lanes thats for sure this week was unnecessary but worrying. Sounds like road works are set to dominate again.

Reducing the EV grant isn't the cause of the sales dip. The UK has had no grants for a long time, and its EV sales fell too. It's a lack of support infrastructure, plus some quite good PR campaigns by ICE-heavy makers (hi Toyota!) to stoke range anxiety in buyers. (I've had people who drive less than 5000 km a year, all short trips, tell me they'd be worried about relying on an EV with “only” 300 km of range…)

I've got an EV, and it's far cheaper for me than the diesel it replaced. However, I've also got a driveway and a home charger. With public charging infrastructure the way it is now (i.e., sparse and expensive), you cannot realistically expect someone who doesn't have a private driveway to buy an EV. Then there's the mostly rural drivers who do have the place to charge overnight, but drive longer distances, and for peace of mind would like a charging option at their destinations.

Tax-breaks on 2nd hand EVs are a useful measure (over a third of cars on Irish roads were previously registered in the UK), but the real money needs to be spent on making EV charging more cost-effective and accessible, and in fairness to the perennially-maligned Ryan, that's why he cut back the grant: as EV prices fell, and second-hand units arrived on the market, it became nothing much more than a subsidy for people who can afford a new car, so the money was better spent in supporting everyone who owned an EV, regardless of how they acquired it.

I’m actually disappointed that the purchase incentive is back. If it has to be, I'd like to see it tied to a scrappage scheme and weighted toward lower-price models… I'll wait to see the details.

Cars are being decarbonised by becoming electric.

Remember in 5 years time you won't be able to buy a petrol or diesel car.

Those cars, buses and trucks will need some form of road to operate on.

Are you sure about the 5 year timescale? EU regulations refer to no ban before 2035.

2m for Donegal TEN-T - that seems like quite a lot for design / planning only; I wonder does it cover some CPOs or similar. It's a fraction of the total cost obviously.

edit: similar amounts for other schemes that are even earlier in planning, e.g. N4 Mullingar to Longford; so obviously that's what it costs now!

Ministers announce €633 million funding for national roads

https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0328/1504617-funding-national-roads/

Interesting to see which projects didn't get funding or very limited funding!

Great to see that list of projects and difficult to argue against many or any of them. The bypasses in particular will remove a lot of bottlenecks.

3.3km of road is a minor scheme, even if it'll have a major impact on safety when done. I'd be surprised if the whole thing cost much more than €15-20M. €2m should go a long way on earthworks.

It's decent enough for new projects, but there is huge fall in the amount of pavement schemes being funded. There is only 1 pavement scheme funded in Cork this year, but in 2023 there were 10! Same difference in Mayo, 1 this year but 11 in 2023.

It's great to see the new schemes funded, but on the other hand there are 100s of km of national roads that have dreadful surfaces, especially on national secondaries, so ongoing funding for pavement upgrades is badly needed.