Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 243: To ask the Minister for Transport the daily traffic volumes on the M50, M1, M7, M3, and the Port Tunnel; the way these figures compare with daily usage in each of the past five years to date in 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21538/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme element of Transport 21. The construction, improvement and maintenance of individual national roads projects, including the collection of statistics in relation to them, is a matter for the National Roads Authority (NRA) under the Roads Act, 1993, as amended by the Roads Act 2007, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 244: To ask the Minister for Transport the daily revenue accruing from tolls on the M50, M1, M4 and the Port Tunnel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21539/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The statutory power to levy tolls on national roads, to make toll bye-laws and to enter into toll agreements with private investors in respect of national roads is vested in the National Roads Authority under Part V of the Roads Act 1993 (as amended by the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the Roads Act 2007). Accordingly, the matter raised by the Deputy falls entirely within the responsibility of the NRA.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 245: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will increase the funding to Kildare County Council for road restoration in the aftermath of severe weather conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21540/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads, in its area, is a statutory function of each individual local authority to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants paid by my Department. The funding available to my Department for 2009 has already been fully allocated to 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.