Dáil debates

Thursday, 15 October 2009

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, I wish to thank the Deputy for raising the matter of remedial safety works at Ward Cross, Finglas.

County councils and other major local authorities are responsible for managing and maintaining all regional and local roads in their area. Each year, the Department of Transport assesses the regional and local roads programmes of local authorities and makes grant allocations towards those programmes. The authorities must also commit an appropriate share from their own resources for this purpose, and the road grants we provide are a supplement to those resources.

Fingal County Council has been allocated a total of €5.8 million in regional and local road grants in 2009. While there are no further funds at our disposal from which we could make a special grant allocation to Fingal County Council for remedial safety works at Ward Cross, it is open to the council to fund eligible works at that location from the discretionary improvement grant provided by the Department of Transport or from its own resources. This year, a discretionary improvement grant of €0.215 million has been made to the council. The selection of works to be funded from this grant is a matter for the council.

In May this year, the Department of Transport invited applications from road authorities for funding in 2010 under the low cost safety improvement works scheme of grants. Among the applications submitted by Fingal County Council was a proposal for funding a project at Ward Cross. Fingal County Council may apply to carry out detailed design of their preferred full roundabout project as a low cost measure. It also has the option to apply for specific improvement grant funding in 2010 for the whole scheme at Ward Cross. Alternatively, if a suitable formal application could be submitted, the Department of Transport would be prepared to consider giving approval to the council to proceed with works this year on condition that the scheme would be submitted as a priority in the council's 2010 specific improvements grant list of road grant applications.

All applications received for funding are considered, having regard to compliance with eligibility criteria, the need to prioritise projects, competing demands from other local authorities and the funds available for the scheme in 2010. Pending the undertaking of improvement works at Ward Cross, the Minister for Transport has been advised that the council has increased the amount of signage, implemented rumble strips, put in anti-skid surfacing, reduced the speed limit from 80 km/h to 60 km/h and provided new road markings. The 2010 grant allocations will be announced early in the new year.

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