James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 215: To ask the Minister for Transport and the Marine his plans to compensate local authorities for the fact that the implementation of health and safety regulations has eaten into the roadworks improvements budget. [23016/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Overall responsibility for local government finance is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

In so far as roads are concerned, the improvement and maintenance of non-national roads in its area is a statutory function of each road authority in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act, 1993. Accordingly, in the case of works on non-national roads, costs associated with the proper and safe management of such works are a matter for local authorities to be funded from their own resources supplemented by State road grants provided by my Department.

My Department provides grants to local authorities for works on non-national roads under a number of grant categories. The level of grants allocated to individual authorities is determined each year having regard to a number of factors including the total funds available in a particular year, eligibility criteria for the different grant schemes, road pavement conditions, length of road network, the need to prioritise projects and competing demands from other local authorities. In determining the annual non-national road grant allocations, the overall objective is to resource each local authority appropriately in relation to their ongoing and special needs.

All non-national road grants for 2007 have now been committed and there are no additional funds at my disposal from which further grant allocations could be made at this time. Road grants for 2008 will be determined early in the New Year.

Funding of works on national roads is a matter for the National Roads Authority.