Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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554. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to fund all proposed low-cost safety improvement projects for roads in County Limerick as proposed by Limerick City and County Council; the planned date for sanctioning of funding for such projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16736/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each 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. 

My Department sought applications in September 2018 for funding of safety improvement works on regional and local roads to be carried out by local authorities during 2019.  The schemes for inclusion in the application are decided by the local authorities.  Allocations are made by the Department taking into account the terms applying to the Scheme and the available budget for the grant programme.  

Limerick City and County Council submitted 11 projects for funding under the Safety Improvement Scheme in 2019 and 9 were approved for funding.  A total grant of €358,000 was allocated for these safety improvement schemes on 1st February 2019. 

It is also open to local authorities to fund safety improvement schemes from the Discretionary Grant or from their own resources.