James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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534. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of the provision of funding of a bypass for Clane, County Kildare; the discussions he has held with the local authority involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39715/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads (RLR) in Kildare 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 initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority. In this context no funding application has been received by the Department in relation to the Clane bypass.

The economic reality of recent years has meant significant reductions in roads budgets across the board and this has resulted in some grant programmes being curtailed, including the Specific and Strategic Grant Programmes, in order to protect funding for road maintenance and repair and this remains the position.

Kildare County Council has been allocated over €29.5m in 2018. It is important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement local authorities in their spending in this area and it is open to Kildare County Council to fund work on this road from its own resources.