Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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285. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department has provided for specific improvement grants in budget 2017. [31215/16]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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286. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the sums granted by his Department for specific improvement grants in each of the years since 2014, including for the forthcoming year as announced under budget 2017. [31216/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 285 and 286 together.

The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of the local authority, 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 initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the Council.

In order to protect funding for road maintenance and repair in recent years regional and local road improvement schemes, including the Specific and Strategic Grants Schemes, have been curtailed.  In this context my Department is not operating a general application process under these grant schemes at present.

As requested, the following table provides details of total payments made under the Specific Improvement Grants programme to local authorities in the period 2014-2016:

Total Specific Improvement Grant Paid

* 2016 Allocation.  Final payments for 2016 will not be known until early 2017

Where funding is being provided for Specific Grant type projects, it is primarily to meet existing commitments, address important safety issues and progress projects included in the Capital Investment Plan.  While 2017 will see a welcome increase funding for regional and local roads, it will still take some years for funding to reach "steady state" levels and the main focus in 2017 will continue to be on maintenance and renewal.  It is expected the 2017 allocations will be announced early in the new year.

It is open to Councils to fund road improvement projects from their own resources.  The purpose of Exchequer funding is to supplement the own resources of local authorities, not to meet the full cost of schemes.