Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on the promotion (details supplied) of Valentia Island , County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16965/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The maintenance and improvement 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. The initial selection and prioritisation of projects to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

A total of €435.176 million is being provided in regional and local road grants in 2011. From this allocation, Kerry County Council is being provided with a total of €19.071 million. This total figure includes the additional allocation of €2.885m which was made to Kerry County Council as part of the Jobs Initiative in May.

Local authorities will shortly be invited by the National Roads Authority (NRA) to submit applications for consideration for funding in 2012 under the Specific Improvement Grant Scheme. It is open to Kerry County Council to prioritise the roads in question for funding in 2012 and to include them among their application to the NRA.