Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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118. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if funding will be provided for the repair of rural roads due to stretched council resources and recent weather occurrences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37703/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of local authorities, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from the Councils' own resources supplemented by State road grants.  The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.

I announced the 2018 regional and local road allocations in January and all grant funding available to my Department has been allocated. I have been liaising with Minister Paschal Donohoe, most recently in early August, regarding the provision of additional funding to further assist local authorities in the repair of roads affected by severe weather events over last winter but to date there is no indication that additional funding will be made available to my Department.

It is important to note that it is the responsibility of each Council to determine its priorities and decide its work programme taking available grant funding and its own resources into account.