Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mar a dúirt mé, thóg mé na ceisteanna sin ar son an Aire féin chun freagra a thabhairt do na Teachtaí faoi shonraí na scéime seo. Tá nóta agam anseo a deireann that there has been significant local lobbying for Galway County Council to carry out road improvement works on the local Derrartha Road, which connects the island areas of Connemara with An Cheathrú Rua. While Galway County Council did write to the Department about funding for this road in January of this year, the county council would need to submit a preliminary appraisal as required under the updated project appraisals process and any such appraisal would need to consider options and costings. I know from lobbying for improvements to roads in my native county that this is the procedure the Department now looks for. It seeks to have local authorities complete these appraisals in advance of further funding allocations for the specific improvement grants. I know the documentation had been awaited for quite some time and was only finalised and distributed to the local authorities in recent weeks. I urge the Deputies to continue to engage closely with the local authority as Deputy Naughton suggested. I am quite familiar with the part of the country to which the Deputies are referring and I understand the challenges there in terms of the sheer logistics of getting around and the risks of losing key infrastructure. I appreciate that this is a matter of urgency and I will be raising the matter further with the Minister, Deputy Ross. I apologise that I am not in a position to give any further detail on the specifics or some of the minutiae which might perhaps be more helpful in this regard but I will pass on the Deputies' serious concerns in respect of this matter.

See this speech in context