Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 55: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will instigate an audit of the road surfaces of all non-national roads in conjunction with the local authorities; if he has received correspondence from the European Commission or any other EU body on the issue of road surfaces arising from complaints from bereaved families of road death victims; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45870/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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 is a matter for the National Roads Authority under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is a statutory function of each road authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act, 1993, to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants.

A national Pavement Condition Study of the regional and local road network was carried out in 1996 and a second Pavement Condition Study of the network was completed in 2005. On foot of the findings of the second study, significant grants have been made available to county councils under the pavement restoration programme for restoration improvement and restoration maintenance.

The application of a suitable Pavement Management System is being developed and any further audit/pavement studies will be examined as part of this.

No correspondence has been received by my Department from the European Commission or any other EU body on the issue of road surfaces.