John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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9. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if additional once off funding will be made available to Waterford council to facilitate the regeneration of the roads and footpaths in various estates across the region to bring them up to an acceptable standard; his views that there are many older estates throughout the country which have been taken in charge that have fallen into serious disrepair and are in desperate need of attention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36802/14]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads (including public footpaths) 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 initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.  

On 23 January this year, my Department announced the €331.9m investment programme for regional and local roads. From this allocation, Waterford County Council was allocated €7.5m in funding and Waterford City Council was allocated €1.36m for regional and local roads. These grants are mainly focused on the maintenance of the existing road network and it is open to Waterford Council to include the rehabilitation of public roadways and footpaths within housing estates when prioritising its works programme each year.

In May this year, an additional €43 million in Stimulus funding was announced for road maintenance by Department of Public Expenditure & Reform. The purpose of the additional Stimulus money announced in May is to allow local authorities and the National Roads Authority to enhance their road maintenance and improvement work programmes this year. Waterford County Council was allocated a further €547,437 (€314,237 for Restoration Improvement works and €233,200 under the Community Involvement Scheme).  Waterford City Council also benefitted, receiving an additional €69,051 for road maintenance under the Stimulus funding. Again it was open to the Council to allocate some of these monies towards road rehabilitation works within housing estates.

All available funding for this year has now been allocated and no further funding is available.  It is a matter for the local authority concerned to prioritise works and to select projects that are in line with available resources.