Written answers

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Roads Maintenance Funding

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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1370. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount of funding sought by each local authority for the upgrade and maintenance of roads prior to the most recent allocation, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35808/17]

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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1371. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the allocation by local authority for the upgrade and maintenance of roads, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35809/17]

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1370 and 1371 together.

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

The 2017 regional and local road grants were provided to local authorities in January. The three main grant categories (Restoration Improvement, Restoration Maintenance and Discretionary Grant) are based on road lengths in each local authority's area of responsibility and no applications are sought in respect of these grant categories.

Arising from the substantial cutbacks in grant funding for roads during the financial crisis, local authorities were notified that a number of the Department's Grant programmes had to be curtailed (including the Specific Grant Programme and Strategic Regional and Local Roads Grant Programme) in order to protect funding for road maintenance and repairs.  The Department is not, therefore, operating an annual application process for these Programmes at present.

Applications were sought, however, for bridge rehabilitation works, safety improvement works and speed limits in housing estates for funding in 2017. Details of the funding sought by each local authority is outlined as follows:

LOCAL AUTHORITYBridge Rehabilitation Safety Improvement WorksSpeed Limit Funding in Housing Estates*
Carlow County Council€160,000€80,000€3,400
Cavan County Council€460,000€445,500€24,000
Clare County Council€895,200€500,000€0
Cork County Council€1,435,000€926,000€9,600
Donegal County Council€274,000€264,000€117,410
Galway County Council€415,000€385,000€34,450
Kerry County Council€237,637€435,259€104,125
Kildare County Council€210,350€245,000€17,510
Kilkenny County Council€853,000€287,000€5,625
Laois County Council€220,000€270,000€26,620
Leitrim County Council€200,000€961,000€12,000
Limerick County Council€728,000€844,000€77,000
Longford County Council€230,000€545,000€48,000
Louth County Council€120,000€510,000€0
Mayo County Council€845,555€1,557,239€75,000
Meath County Council€435,000€409,600€22,300
Monaghan County Council€325,000€570,000€12,200
Offaly County Council€200,000€495,000€0
Roscommon County Council€270,000€543,370€47,850
Sligo County Council€291,000€180,000€58,800
Tipperary County Council€979,952€786,000€157,500
Waterford County Council€595,000€813,600€215,806
Westmeath County Council€200,700€340,000€56,825
Wexford County Council€236,000€163,000€13,500
Wicklow County Council€204,000€460,000€100,425
Cork City Council€725,700€368,000€16,500
Galway City Council€100,000€388,000€52,580
TOTAL€11,846,094€13,771,568€1,309,026
* Based on specified unit costs

Details of the 2017 allocations in respect of regional and local roads are available in the Dáil Library.

As regards national roads, while I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme, the planning, design and implementation of individual road projects is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

Details of the initial 2017 allocations in respect of national roads are also available in the Dáil Library. The funding sought by local authorities in respect of national roads is a matter for TII.

Accordingly, I have referred the Deputy's question to TII for direct reply. If you do not receive a reply within 10 working days please notify my Office.

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