Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 357: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will make additional funding available for the repair and upgrade of key secondary and local roads in Dublin North East including Grange Road, Clonshaugh Road, James Larkin Road and Clontarf Road in the Dublin City Council area and Brookstone Road and the Grange Road in Fingal County Council area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8361/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities own resources and are supplemented by State road grants. However, the initial selection and prioritisation of projects to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

Apart from Clonshaugh Road, the roads mentioned were not the subject of 2011 funding applications by the relevant local authorities under the Specific Improvement Grant Scheme. An application for funding in relation to the Clonshaugh Road was received. This application, together with all other applications received, was considered having regard to the eligibility criteria, the need to prioritise projects, competing demands from other local authorities and the funds available for the Specific Improvement Grant Scheme in 2011. However, this project was not among the projects selected for funding. It is open to the Councils to fund these projects from their Discretionary Grants or from their own resources.

A total of €375.176 million has been allocated in 2011 for the maintenance and improvement of regional and local roads. As regards the availability of additional funding, I have directed that the overall transport budget is assessed to determine what scope exists for allocating additional funds for the repair and maintenance of regional and local roads. Any additional funding made available to local authorities as a result of this process will be subject to the normal assessment criteria relating to State grants.