Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

718. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will make funding available to surface a mile, in two different half mile sections, of the L7060 road in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22325/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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 supplemented by State road grants.  

The Department has allocated a total of €350.462 million for regional and local roads in 2013, from which Kerry County Council has been allocated over €13.9 million.  The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded from these grants is also a matter for the local authority.

The grants programme is structured to allow councils reasonable flexibility in using grants while also ensuring that there are clear outputs for the monies allocated in terms of length of road maintained or rehabilitated.  In addition, I announced that local authorities would be afforded additional flexibility this year by allowing Councils to transfer resources into their discretionary grant. In this regard it is open to the council to prioritise the L7060 road so that it is funded under the Discretionary Grant or alternatively to fund it from its own resources.