Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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259. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide details of any pending improvements planned for a regional road (details supplied) in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18284/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants.

The Department has allocated a total of €145 million to local authorities for the Restoration Improvement Grant Programme (RI) in 2014. Of this figure a total of €18.3 million has been allocated to Cork County Council. The selection and prioritisation of works to be undertaken, taking into account available grant funding, is a matter for the local authority. Local authorities have flexibility in relation to re-prioritising RI schemes as necessary.

It is, therefore, open to Cork County Council to re-prioritise its RI programme to include these schemes, fund works from its Discretionary Grant or progress such projects through its own resources.