To ask the Minister for Infrastructure pursuant to AQW 16971/17-22, what metrics her Department's Roads Divisions use to ensure that funds are distributed equitably across local council areas.

In my reply to your previous question (AQW 16971/17-22), I advised that structural maintenance allocations to the four DfI Roads Divisions are made on the basis of need, using a range of weighted indicators tailored to each maintenance activity. Divisions broadly use these indictors when apportioning across council areas to ensure, as far as possible, an equitable distribution of funds.

The table below sets out examples of the two main structural maintenance activities and the associated range of indicators and metrics currently used across the DfI Roads Divisions to distribute funding to local Council areas:

*The Road Maintenance Client System is the Department’s asset management system used to manage the maintenance of the public road network throughout the whole of Northern Ireland.

The exact combination of indicators and metrics used within each Division will be tailored to reflect individual needs and circumstances in the Division at that time with decisions and budgets influenced by specific allocations for functions such as Trunk Road resurfacing schemes and structural stability, including coastal defence repairs. Given the need to consider these functions separately, no Section Office or local Council area will receive a fixed percentage of the available allocation each year.