Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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529. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if consideration will be provided to allocate funding to upgrade a beach road along the Wild Atlantic Way route (details supplied) in County Mayo. [6595/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The improvement and maintenance of public 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 selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority. The grant allocations to local authorities for this year were released on the 3rd February and the details are in the allocations booklet in the Dáil Library.

As regards roads not taken in charge by local authorities; that is, private roads, the maintenance and improvement of these is, in the first instance, a matter for the relevant landowner.

The Local Improvement Scheme for regional and local roads remains in place and under this Scheme Councils can provide funding for roads and laneways not taken in charge. At present, local authorities may use up to 15% of their initial Discretionary Grant towards local improvement schemes should they wish to do so. The local contribution for these schemes is 20% of the total cost of the project.  Furthermore, it is open to local authorities to supplement the percentage of their Discretionary Grant that they can use for the LIS with their own resources.

Some local authorities want a ring-fenced LIS allocation for private roads while others prefer to put the funding into public roads. I think this decision is best made at a local level.