Written answers
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Regional Road Network
Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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582. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 1093 of 4 November 2014, the list of roads submitted by Meath County Council to his Department in 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014 for funding under the specific grant application; the amount granted to the council; the total amount of money granted by his Department by council area for each of these years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43321/14]
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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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 initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.
As I outlined to the Deputy in my response to PQ 41626/14 of 4 November 2014, the economic reality of recent years has meant significant reductions in roads budgets across the board and this has resulted in some grant programmes being curtailed, including the Specific and Strategic Grant Programmes, in order to protect funding for road maintenance and repair.
In 2012 Meath County Council submitted 10 applications for approval under the Specific Grant scheme. Those projects are listed below and where an allocation was made it is also listed in the table.
| 1. | Navan-Balrath R153 €400,000 |
|---|---|
| 2. | Kells Town Centre€250,000 |
| 3. | Dunboyne to Summerhill€200,000 |
| 4. | Rossnaree |
| 5. | Navan Road Trim |
| 6. | Corkery Culvert€110,000 |
| 7. | Balrath Cross Bridge € 60,000 |
| 8. | Oakleypark Bridge€110,000 |
| 9. | Duleek Bypass |
| 10. | Moygaddy Junction |
While my Department did not seek applications under the Specific Grant programme in 2013 or this year (except for bridge rehabilitation works) due to the curtailment of the programme, Meath County Council did submit a Specific Grant application to continue works on the R156 Dunboyne to Summerhill scheme and an amount of €600,000 was allocated in 2013. The Council also applied for a Laytown to Bettystown Link Road scheme during 2013. As explained in response to the Deputy's previous question I am not in a position to make grant funding available for this project at present.
It is important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement local authorities in their spending in this area and it is open to the Meath County Council to fund this project from its own resources.
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