Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 172: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has received an application to fund a new bridge at Cockhill outside of Buncrana, County Donegal. [19064/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads, including bridges, 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 and bridges are funded from local authorities own resources and are supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

A total of €439.676 million is being provided to local authorities this year in regional and local road grants. This funding includes the additional allocation of €60 million provided in May this year by the Government under the jobs initiative. From this allocation, Donegal County Council has been allocated a total of €27,257,928.

In August last year, the National Roads Authority invited applications from local authorities for funding under the Specific Improvement Grants Scheme. Donegal County Council submitted 15 projects for consideration for funding in 2011 under this grant category. However a proposal for Cockhill Bridge was not among the applications submitted.

Donegal County Council did make a subsequent separate proposal to my Department for funding for the Cockhill Bridge earlier this year. However, at that stage all the 2011 Specific Improvement Grant moneys had been fully allocated. It is open to Donegal County Council to prioritise this project and to submit it among its proposals for funding in 2012 under the Specific Improvement Grants Scheme, when applications are sought in due course.