Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 255: To ask the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the ongoing delay in deciding the route of a proposed road in the vicinity of Spiddal, County Galway (details supplied); if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that the delay has resulted in landowners of close to 15,000 acres of land around the proposed routes not being able to apply for planning permission to build on their land for a number of years; if a route will be decided upon or if landowners in the area will be allowed apply of planning permission in the near future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17711/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads, in its area, is a statutory function of each road authority in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act, 1993. Works on such roads are 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.

A total of €439.676 million has been allocated to local authorities under the Regional and Local Roads Investment Programme. From this allocation, Galway County Council are being provided with a total of €24.234 million. This total figure includes the additional allocation of €3.381m which was made to Galway County Council as part of the Jobs Initiative in May. Also included in that allocation is funding of €500,000 towards R336 Conamara Access Road Bearan to Rós an Mhíl.

I understand that Galway County Council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and RPS consulting engineers met with the EU Commission in May this year and that the Council hope to have a public consultation on route selection in the Autumn