Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

I reply on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche.

County councils and other major local authorities are responsible for managing and maintaining all non-national roads in their area. They have to commit an appropriate share of their own resources for this purpose. In addition, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government assesses the non-national roads programmes of local authorities each year and makes substantial grant allocations to local authorities which supplement their own resources.

In 2006, the total of these grant allocations from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to Roscommon County Council for non-national roads was €15.254 million. This represents increases of 216%, 124% and over 20% respectively on the corresponding 1994, 1997 and 2005 payments to the council.

The question of special funding to take account of severe impact of weather conditions on roads is regularly raised. The approach taken by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government under successive Ministers, and agreed with local authorities is that we do not hold back a reserve allocation at central level to deal with weather contingencies. Such an arrangement would mean a reduction across all local authorities in the road grant allocations to them at the beginning of each year. Instead, the allocation made by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to local authorities is inclusive of the weather risk factor. Local authorities are expressly advised that they should set aside contingency sums from their overall non-national roads resources to finance necessary weather-related works.

In 2006, the discretionary improvement grant allocation to Roscommon County Council is €1,014,000, an increase of 7% on the initial 2005 allocation. The selection of works to be funded from this allocation is, in line with what I have said, a matter for the council. On 25 January 2006, after the 2006 non-national road grant allocations had been announced, Roscommon County Council wrote to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government seeking a special allocation of €100,000 for a study on the ground conditions, methods of construction and cost of carrying out improvement works on the Athlone to Clonown Road. The council was informed that the 2006 grants were fully allocated but that it was open to the council to use a combination of its own resources and discretionary improvement grant allocation for this purpose.

The council was also informed that, as an alternative, if a suitable formal application were submitted, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government would be prepared to consider giving approval to the council to proceed with the study on the condition that the scheme would be submitted as a priority on the council's 2007 EU co-financed specific improvement grant list of applications.

In July this year, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government sought applications for consideration for funding in 2007 under that scheme. Last month, Roscommon County Council submitted, inter alia, an application for €50,000, for consideration for funding in 2007, for the appointment of consultants to enable a detailed study of the Clonown Road to be carried out. This application will be considered in the context of the 2007 non-national road grant allocations. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, will announce these allocations early in the new year.

General purpose grants from the local government fund may also be used by local authorities to meet their ongoing and special expenditure requirements, including flood relief. In this regard, I have announced increased local government fund allocations of almost €948 million in general purpose grants to all local authorities in 2007. Roscommon County Council will receive an allocation of €22,198,317 in 2007, which represents an increase of over 7% on its 2006 allocation.

The weather conditions of recent times undoubtedly create difficulties for the road infrastructure and for road users in parts of Roscommon. Problems of this kind call for adaptation and prioritisation on the part of the local authority concerned, with the assistance of the considerably increased funds being made available by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I encourage Roscommon County Council and all local authorities facing similar challenges to find solutions within this framework.

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