Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Transport thanks the Senator for raising the matter of the improvement of Pottery Road, Dún Laoghaire. In response, the Minister would like me first to make a number of general points about the resourcing of regional and local roads.

Responsibility for the improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads in its area is a matter for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State grants. Road grants for regional and local roads in 2009 were notified to all local authorities on 2 February. The Minister is particularly pleased that, in a year when Exchequer funding is under enormous pressure, he was in a position to allocate more than €600 million for the maintenance and improvement of the network. This is a clear indication of this Government's continuing commitment to improving our regional and local roads network, which is critical from economic and social perspectives.

In the case of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the total grant allocation from the Department in 2009 is €8.711 million. As part of its overall allocation, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was allocated funding under the Department's specific improvement grant scheme. Under this scheme, local authorities are invited to submit applications to the Department for consideration and when submitting applications, councils are invited to prioritise them.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council submitted five proposals for consideration under the specific improvement grant scheme in 2009, listed in order of priority. Three schemes prioritised by the council received allocations, totalling €3 million. The council's application for funding its Pottery Road project, which was fifth on its priority list, did not, however, receive an allocation. All regional and local road grants for 2009 have been committed and there are no additional funds at the Minister's disposal from which further grant allocations could be made at this time.

The Department will be seeking applications for 2010 under the specific improvement grant scheme later this year and it will be open to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to re-prioritise and submit an application for the Pottery Road proposal at that time. Local authorities may also use their discretionary improvement grant allocations from the Department to fund eligible improvement schemes. The 2009 discretionary improvement grant allocation to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is €366,000. The selection of works to be funded from this allocation is entirely a matter for the local authority.