Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

On behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The improvement and maintenance of non-national roads in County Monaghan is a matter for Monaghan County Council to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State grants provided by the Department. Before turning to the specific issue of the roads in County Monaghan, I wish to avail of this opportunity to outline the progress being made in the significant resourcing of non-national roads.

In January, the Minister announced the 2007 grant allocation for non-national roads, which at over €607.5 million is the highest ever. It represents an overall increase of 9%, or almost €50 million, on the 2006 allocation. In 2007, the initial allocation to Monaghan County Council is some €15.1 million, an increase of 6% over 2006.

Responsibility for national roads is a matter for the relevant road authority and the National Roads Authority which operates under the aegis of my colleague the Minister for Transport. I understand that where non-national roads have been damaged as a result of construction work on national roads projects, including the transport of materials to and from the projects, the National Roads Authority normally funds remedial works as part of the national roads scheme. In this regard, the Minister understands that Monaghan County Council is in correspondence with the NRA regarding funding for the improvement of a number of non-national roads which it indicates have been damaged as a result of work on the Castleblaney bypass scheme. This is a matter to be determined between the local authority and the NRA and the Department has no function in the matter.

All non-national roads grants for 2007 have now been committed and there are no additional funds at the Minister's disposal from which he could make a further grant allocation to Monaghan County Council for improvement works to non-national roads. It is, however, open to the council to fund eligible works from its discretionary improvement grant provided by the Department or from its own resources. This year, a discretionary improvement grant allocation of €667,000 has been made to the council, an increase of 3% on the 2006 figure. The selection of works to be funded from this allocation is a matter for the council.

The Department will also be seeking applications under the specific improvements grant scheme later this year and it will be open to Monaghan County Council to submit applications for consideration for funding in 2008 under the scheme. The initial selection of projects under this scheme is a matter for local authorities.

Apart from non-national roads funding, general purpose grants from the local government fund may also be used by local authorities to meet their ongoing and special expenditure requirements. In this regard, the Minister has made available increased allocations of almost €948 million in general purpose grants to all local authorities in 2007. Monaghan County Council has received an allocation of over €15.7 million in 2007, representing an increase of 9% on its 2006 allocation.

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