asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give details of the road improvements carried out in 1982 in each county with financial assistance from the EEC.
682.
Written Answers . - Road Improvements .
681.
asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give details of road improvements carried out in County Galway in 1980, 1981 and 1982 with the assistance of financial aid from the EEC.
: I propose to take Questions Nos. 681 and 682 together.
Financial aid from EEC sources for the improvement of public roads was received in 1982 from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by way of grants under the western package. The amounts of such aid from each source in 1982 were as follows:
European Regional Development Fund: The amount received from the quota section was £11.7 million. This was treated as a recoupment of Exchequer expenditure on assisted projects and was used to increase the overall resources of the Public Capital Programme.
Particulars in respect of aid from the non-quota section are set out in a reply by the Minister for Finance on 3 February 1983 to Questions Nos. 50, 51 and 52 from Deputy J. Leonard and Deputy N. Blaney.
Western Package: £781,085 was received under the package. This was treated as an appropriation-in-aid of the Environment Vote.
The ERDF (Quota Section) aid is assisting the execution of works not only on projects included in the road development plan for the 1980s but also other road improvement schemes throughout the country.
The western package provides, inter alia, assistance towards the costs of improvement works on county roads, used mainly for agriculture and forestry in 13 counties. At least 35 per cent of the inhabitants of the district involved have to be principally engaged in agriculture or forestry. To avail of the aid for roads under the western package, the block grant for roads to certain county councils in 1982 included sums specifically to finance programmes of works on eligible county roads as follows:
|
County Council |
Amount |
|
£ |
|
|
Cavan |
167,900 |
|
Clare |
202,200 |
|
Cork |
116,500 |
|
Donegal |
338,100 |
|
Galway |
204,500 |
|
Kerry |
156,500 |
|
Leitrim |
126,800 |
|
Limerick |
26,200 |
|
Longford |
60,500 |
|
Mayo |
251,300 |
|
Monaghan |
110,800 |
|
Roscommon |
130,200 |
|
Sligo |
108,500 |
|
Totals |
2,000,000 |
1981 was the first year of the western package. The allocation in that year to Galway County Council was £179,000.
Works under the foregoing schemes were undertaken at a large number of locations throughout the entire country. I feel sure that the Deputy will accept that the preparation of lists showing the hundreds of locations involved would take up a disproportionate amount of time in present circumstances.