Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McLellan for the opportunity to address this issue. The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads in its area is a statutory function of each road authority, in this case Cork County Council, in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on such roads are a matter for the relevant local authority to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants.

The 2014 regional and local road grant allocations were announced in January this year. A total of €331.9 million is being provided to local authorities in 2014 for regional and local roads grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of projects to be funded from these moneys is a matter for each local authority.

The cutbacks in State grants for regional and local roads has meant that it has been necessary to concentrate resources on the maintenance and rehabilitation of road pavements, rather than major new road schemes and major realignment schemes.

I am familiar with the R624 Cobh Road project and I understand there is a lot of concern locally about the need to upgrade access to Cobh island, as Deputy McLellan explained. An application was received from Cork County Council in September 2010 for 100% funding of the R624 Cobh Road project, which involves the construction of a new road and bridge at an estimated cost of €57.5 million under the Strategic Regional and Local Roads Programme.

The funding available for projects under this category for the entire country in 2014 is €11.3 million, down from €87.5 million in 2008. Unfortunately, this means that it is not possible to progress projects such as this at present anywhere in the State.

The Government's Comprehensive Review of Expenditure 2015-2017 and Capital Review 2015-2019 have commenced. The current and capital reviews will consider new ways of achieving Government objectives in the tight fiscal framework in which we operate, including the extent to which funding will be available for the maintenance and development of the road network. I cannot say at this point what the outcome of the comprehensive review and of the capital review will be, but the Deputy can be assured that I will be making a strong case for an increase in the roads budget so that important projects such as this can be put back on the agenda. I would also encourage Cork County Council in any future application to make a contribution to the cost of such a project from its own revenues.

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