Written answers

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Road Network

Photo of Michael HartyMichael Harty (Clare, Independent)
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578. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide the appropriate funding in 2016 to support the completion of the Gort road and Tulla road northern inner relief road link in County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11254/16]

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads in its area is a statutory function of local authorities in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act, 1993.  Works on such roads are a matter for the relevant local authority to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants.  The initial selection and prioritisation of projects to be funded from these monies is a matter for each local authority. In this context my Department does not have a recent application in relation to the completion of the northern relief road in Ennis.

Given the cutbacks in State funding for regional and local roads since the financial crisis, it has been necessary to curtail the grant programme for major new regional and local road schemes and for major realignment schemes in order to protect the funding available for the maintenance of the existing network. It has not, therefore, been possible to provide funding for a range of road improvement schemes.

The Capital Plan published by the previous Government in September 2015 provides for the gradual build up in expenditure on the maintenance and improvement of the road network over 7 years. The bulk of expenditure is scheduled to be spent on maintenance of the road network with some limited investment in new projects.  A Northern Relief road for Ennis is not one of the projects included in the Capital Plan.

When allocating grant funding my Department has emphasised that the commitment of local authorities to contribute significantly from their own resources towards the cost of improving and maintaining the regional and local roads network is essential and that full consideration needs to be given to utilising the Local Property Tax to boost own resources expenditure on regional and local road maintenance and renewal.

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