Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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265. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 229 of 10 April 2014, if he will confirm the moneys actually paid over to date by his Department to Cork County Council in relation to the land acquisition costs associated with this road project. [18323/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As I outlined in my response to Question No. 229 of 10 April, 2014, my Department gave a commitment in 2010 to contribute a maximum of €3.7 million of the estimated land acquisition costs of €7.4 million or 50% of the cost, whichever is the lesser, and this is being honoured.  Between 2010-2013 €2,005,265 was paid to Cork County Council in respect of the Carrigaline Western Relief Road. A total of €91,000 has been allocated to this scheme in 2014.

During the period 2002 to the end of 2009, State road grants totalling €307,856 were paid to Cork County Council for the planning and design stage of this project.

Funding for regional and local roads has reduced substantially in recent years,  from over €600m in 2007 and 2008 to €331m in 2014. Due to the need to focus the limited funding available on the repair and strengthening of the road network, it has been necessary to curtail the Strategic Roads Grants Scheme for the moment. There is therefore no commitment in place to provide grant funding towards the cost of construction for this project.

It is important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement the resources of Councils. It is, therefore, open to Cork County Council to fund this project from its own resources.