Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 155: To ask the Minister for Transport the additional funding that has been requested by Limerick County Council from his Department to meet the costs of works that have been carried out and are underway in the Newcastle West area following flooding on 1 August 2008; the amount that has been made available to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31836/08]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads in their areas is a matter for local authorities to be funded from their own resources supplemented by State Grants. The initial selection of projects or works to be funded under the various grant categories is also a matter for local authorities.

The funds available to local authorities for improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads are intended to cover contingencies arising from severe weather conditions. The Memorandum on Grants for Non-National Roads provides that the cost of remedial works necessitated by such conditions must be met from these resources and that local authorities should set aside contingency sums to finance these works.

My Department is also prepared to consider sympathetically any request from local authorities to adjust their multi-annual Restoration Programmes in order to prioritise work on regional and local roads necessitated by severe weather conditions. Funding of national roads is a matter for the National Roads Authority.