Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 54: To ask the Minister for Transport the reason funding to Kildare County Council for regional and local road grants in 2009 was reduced by 13% when the national allocation only fell by 2%. [14934/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads in its area is a matter for Kildare County Council to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State grants.

Road grants for regional and local roads are allocated annually 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 regional and local road grant allocations, the overall objective is to resource each local authority appropriately in relation to their ongoing and specific needs.

The multiplicity of criteria applying to road grants, together with the impact from year to year of individual projects as they advance from commencement to completion, necessarily entails divergence in the annual levels of allocation to individual local authorities.