Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 1034: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide funding for the upgrading of 300 meters of the final stretch of public access road L8007 to a facility (details supplied) in County Kerry. [27495/12]

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.

I announced the 2012 regional and local road grant allocations earlier this year. A total of €376 million is being provided to local authorities under this investment programme this year. From this allocation, Kerry County Council is being provided with a total of €16.1 million. My Department has not received an application from Kerry County Council for funding this section of the L8007. In any event, the 2012 regional and local road grants have now been fully allocated and there are no further funds available from which an additional allocation could be made. However, it is open to Kerry County Council to fund these works from their own resources or to include the section of road in their Restoration Improvement programme in future years.