Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I would like to welcome the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, back to the House. I call on Senator Higgins to raise her Adjournment matter.

Lorraine Higgins (Labour)
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I ask the Minister to make funds available to address a significant road safety issue at Ballydavid, Athenry, in County Galway. I have previously raised this ongoing issue both locally and nationally in the Seanad but to no avail. I cannot overemphasise how precarious the current situation is both for residents and motorists in the area. If the situation continues unchanged, it will only be a matter of time before more serious accidents occur.

In the past, there have been fatalities in this particular area. There are nine housing estates in the Ballydavid area with approximately 1,000 residents in total, including children. Incredibly, despite it being one of the larger populated areas in Athenry, residents from Ballydavid have no continuous footpath into the town centre. This begs serious questions about the original developments, as well as the planning for these estates and developers' contributions. Those contributions should be spent for the betterment of such areas.

The problem is compounded by the fact that residents are forced to use two roads, one of which is highly dangerous. There is also a wide railway bridge with a notorious bend, while the other one is a back road with another railway bridge. It is incredibly dangerous for road users. By any standards, they are less than ideal for pedestrians. The fact that so many people have no option but to use them daily to get to schools, churches or the middle of town, raises more serious road safety issues.

A comprehensive road safety plan is urgently needed for the residents of Ballydavid. Such infrastructure requires investment which is vital for the Athenry community. Residents should be able to walk safely to and from the centre of Athenry without risking their lives, all for the want of something as basic as a footpath.

I hate having to raise such issues in the Seanad but I am frustrated. I have contacted Galway County Council and have met with council officials on this matter. I have also raised it in the Seanad, yet the situation has remained unchanged for the last two years. I therefore implore the Minister to make funds available to rectify this situation and put something as basic as a footpath in the area so that pedestrians can walk safely to and from the town. Motorists would then not have to swerve to avoid pedestrians in that area.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Higgins for raising this matter. I am pleased to take this debate in the Seanad this evening and to take the opportunity again to respond to the Senator's request. I wish to re-emphasise the position regarding the funding of regional and local roads.

I understand the Senator's motion refers to a non-continuous footpath and, separately, to a railway bridge, both of which are located in the vicinity of Ballydavid, Athenry, Co. Galway. I will begin first of all by addressing the issue of regional and local road funding.

The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads, including footpaths, is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources, supplemented by State road grants.

The role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement local authorities in their spending in this area. The initial selection and prioritisation of works, including footpaths, to be funded is also a matter for the local authority and its elected members.

On 23 January this year, my Department announced the €331.9 million investment programme for regional and local roads. From this, Galway County Council was allocated €18.3 million. These grants are mainly focused on the maintenance of the existing road network and it is open to Galway County Council to undertake work on footpaths from its discretionary grant allocation. Short lengths of safety-critical footpaths can also be submitted for consideration under the low-cost safety programme.

All available funding for 2014 has now been allocated and no further funding is available. I expect to announce the details of the 2015 road grants in January next year.

As regards the Irish Rail bridge at Ballydavid, Athenry, this is an operational matter for Irish Rail. Irish Rail has provided the following update to my officials regarding the bridge which is designated as OBG156 and spans the Dublin - Galway railway line at Ballydavid.

larnród Éireann renewed this bridge in 2013 with a provision for the later addition of a pedestrian deck. Currently, the pedestrian deck is in storage awaiting the installation of the approach footpaths by Galway County Council. As soon as the footpaths are nearing completion, larnród Éireann will place the pedestrian deck on the integrated supports on OBG156. The pedestrian deck was not included in the installation work in 2013, as it was felt that it presented a potential hazard to children inclined to attempt to cross the track using what would have been an unfinished pedestrian way.

As outlined above, the prioritisation of work on regional and local roads, including the approaching footpaths at this location, is a matter for Galway County Council.

This is communicating to me, as the Senator may already be aware, that the pedestrian deck, which might make a contribution to dealing with some of the difficulty the Senator has outlined, has been constructed and is in storage at the moment. The challenge in this matter is how funding can be found and how existing funding can be prioritised to allow construction of footpaths at this location to allow the delivery of the pedestrian span in a continuous manner.

Lorraine Higgins (Labour)
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I thank the Minister for his response. I accept that roads fall within the remit of Galway County Council or county councils in general, but where there are road safety issues and there have been fatalities on the road in question and in the area in question, it is not acceptable that the situation continues. I will contact the director of roads for Galway County Council to ask that he apply for funding when the new funding comes on stream for 2015 and I urge the Minister to seriously prioritise funding for this area to try to rectify the issue.

I am flummoxed and flabbergasted by the remark in the response that the pedestrian deck and the attempts to install it would be a potential hazard to children. It is a hazard to children on a daily basis as things stand as they make their way to school with no footpath. Parents are having to dodge cars and motorists are having to dodge pedestrians. There have been fatalities at this point in the past. How many more do we need before something is done? I ask that Deputy Donohoe, as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, along with representatives from Irish Rail and Galway County Council, come together and liaise to try to sort out this matter for the 1,000 people living in this area.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for her response. My challenge in dealing with issues like this is that as Minister my role, as the Senator well knows, is to determine the funding that is available and allocate that to local authorities. With the knowledge they have of their localities, which is not available to me, they would spend that money in the best way possible for their areas and be able to respond to local needs and decide which projects should go ahead and which should not in a way that I cannot.

However, I was struck, when I received the Senator's motion after it was selected and we were preparing to respond to it, by the fact that money has already been spent to construct a pedestrian span that is now lying in storage and this money was spent by a semi-State body for which I have direct responsibility. It is a striking situation that taxpayers' money has already been spent on a deck to make that part of it safe and that cannot be installed because the funding is not available to cover off either side of it. That sounds like a very unusual and specific difficulty.

While as Minister I must respect how Galway County Council spends its funding, given that a deck has been built by Iarnród Éireann, which also has very scarce resources, I will contact the county council and Iarnród Éireann and its chief executive, to see if anything can be done to move this forward. When I get into the allocation of funding, I will always allocate the total funding in the expectation that the Senator and the other local representatives will have the best idea of how it can be spent. It is an unusual position to be in the Seanad and to find out that work has been done on part of a bridge that has been in storage since 2013.