Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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584. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the position regarding funding (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24480/14]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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596. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will consider the provision of funding for improvement works to local tertiary and cul-de-sac roads in the south and west Kerry electoral area. [24794/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 584 and 596 together.

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 such roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants.  

In January 2014, my Department allocated a total of €332 million for regional and local roads. €12.7million was allocated to Kerry County Council, including  €6.55 million for the Restoration Improvement Grant Programme (RI).  Furthermore, on 20 May, my Department announced a further €20m in stimulus funding for regional and local road improvements, of which Kerry received a further €507,531 for Restoration Improvement works and €440,037 for Community Involvement Schemes.  The selection and prioritisation of works to be undertaken under the additional RI allocation is a matter for the local authority and the authority also has flexibility in relation to re-prioritising its original RI programme as necessary.  

It is, therefore, open to Kerry County Council to undertake works under the additional RI allocation, to re-prioritise its RI programme if it wishes, to fund works from its Discretionary Grant or to progress projects through its own resources.