Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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250. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide enough funding to complete the Athy southern distributor road in County Kildare; and the number of car journeys travelled on the assessment of route selection, given that Kildare County Council is not supplying this information. [12418/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​As my predecessor indicated in his reply to PQ 7165/16 of 14 April 2016, the improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads (such as the Athy Southern Distributor Road) is the statutory responsibility of Kildare County Council, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from the Council's own resources supplemented by State road grants.

The Capital Plan 2016-2021 provides that a number of schemes targeting bottlenecks in the road network will be progressed subject to necessary approvals.  Among those schemes is the Athy Southern Distributor Road.  It is a matter for Kildare County Council to progress this scheme through the planning approval process.  My Department has allocated a grant of €600,000 to Kildare County Council this year to fund planning work on the project.

The route selection process (including any studies regarding traffic type and volume) for this scheme is a matter for Kildare County Council.