Should the government prioritize the maintenance and repair of existing roads and bridges over building new infrastructure?

They shouldn't prioritize any of these over the other. They should find the means to do both at the same time! Ireland needs an adequate transit system but also needs to maintain its roads as well for multi-faceted travel to be enabled.

A mix is necessary, repairing old rail-lines that have gone out of use will greatly expand the rail system in Ireland. Creating new infrastructure is also necessary to progress Ireland into the future.

No, the government should invest in more public transport infrastructure, especially outside of Dublin and the GDA

Yes and no. Yes, as the current state of a lot of the existing infrastructure is diabolical, especially in rural areas. But where it is deemed more efficient and economically viable, better, new infrastructure should be implemented. E.g. bypasses - reducing congestion in small towns and aiding traffic flow.

I think rural Ireland is in serious need of repair and also infrastructure on its roads, a high percentage of accidents are on rural roads

With the road tax on top of insurance and the price of a car as well as considering the Guards are assessing tires on the road side the first thing is there should be no potholes

Yes, but only in cases where the current roads and bridges are unsafe.