Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 63: To ask the Minister for Transport if he has responsibility for the allocation of funding towards regional and county road networks here; the degree to which such funds are being made available or are likely to be made available for the alleviation of flooding and the elimination of accident blackspots thereby contributing to the safety of motorists and pedestrians; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45901/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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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. The carrying out of works on these roads is a matter for the relevant local authority to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of projects to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

Local authorities may submit applications for funding projects to eliminate accident blackspots, under my Department's Low Cost Safety Improvement Works scheme of grants for regional and local roads. This scheme of grants was introduced in 2000 as an extension of the scheme operated on national roads under the auspices of the National Roads Authority (NRA).

The NRA assesses applications for grant assistance under the scheme on behalf of my Department. The criteria for grant approval are based on accident data, inspection of sites, locations showing demonstrable hazard and discussions between the local authority and the NRA.

When Exchequer grants for regional and local roads are allocated each year, my Department does not hold back a reserve allocation, at central level, to deal with weather contingencies such as flooding. Holding back such an allocation would mean a reduction in the road grant allocations made to all local authorities at the beginning of each year.

The allocations made to local authorities are inclusive of a weather risk factor. Local authorities are expressly advised in the annual road grants circular letter that they should set aside contingency sums from their overall regional and local roads resources to finance necessary weather related works.

My Department would be prepared to consider, sympathetically, any request from local authorities to adjust their multi-annual restoration programmes or revise their specific grant applications, in order to prioritise work in 2010 necessitated by the recent flooding.

Local authorities are still assessing the extent of flood damage in their regions. Because these assessments cannot be completed until the flooding subsides, I expect that it will take some time before all the authorities concerned can quantify the damage sustained by their regional and local road networks and cost repair work.

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Transport his views on the feasibility study on the Leinster outer orbital route which was submitted to his Department by the National Roads Authority in 2007; if he has been briefed by the NRA or Meath County Council on this matter; if he expects planning or works on the proposal to begin in 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45871/09]

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, including the Leinster Orbital Route, is a matter for the National Roads Authority under the Roads Act 1993 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

The NRA completed an updated feasibility study, which built on a study completed in 2001. This study, which was presented to me in April 2007, looked at the costs and benefits of such a route. The study finds that there is merit in constructing an Orbital Route linking Drogheda/Navan/Naas. Overall, the study concludes that the route is economically viable, technically feasible and strategically beneficial.

Neither Transport 21 nor the National Development Plan provide any funding for a Leinster Orbital Route. The Government has already made it clear that under Transport 21, its priorities for the national roads investment programme, after the completion of the major inter-urban network in 2010, will be the Atlantic Road Corridor as well as the improvement of other key national primary routes and the targeting improvement of certain national secondary routes.

It is clear that, in the current economic climate, further progress on projects such as the Leinster Orbital Route will only be possible as and when resources become available.