Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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620. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if supplementary roads funding will be provided to Kerry County Council to address the deterioration of the condition of the county's roads; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14363/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads in Kerry is a statutory function of Kerry County Council in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act, 1993.  Works on such roads are a matter for the Council 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 the Council.

In addition to the 2016 regional and local road allocations announced in January this year, my predecessor announced a further €85m in additional funding for regional and local roads in February this year as part of the Tranche 1 funding to local authorities to remedy damage caused by severe weather.  On 27 May I approved a further allocation under Tranche 2 of the severe weather funding to local authorities as notified through Circular RW 9/2016. All available funding for 2016 has now been allocated.

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.