asked the Minister for the Environment if he will proceed with a decision to grant an allocation for a national road improvement grant to meet the cost of providing a controlled pedestrian crossing at Oranmore, County Galway, as he promised approximately six months ago.
Written Answers. - Oranmore (Galway) Pedestrian Crossing Provision.
627.
In reply to a parliamentary question from the Deputy on 26 January 1983, concerning this pedestrian crossing, I informed him, as follows:—
The provision of pedestrian traffic signals is a matter for the road authority, Galway County Council. The cost of the work would normally fall to be financed from the council's own resources supplemented by the block grant allocated annually by my Department.
The county council has requested the allocation of a specific national road improvement grant to meet the cost of providing the signals and this will be borne in mind when this year's road grant allocations are being determined.
In determining the amounts of the road grant allocations for this year, I allocated a block grant of £812,000 to Galway County Council for 1983 compared with an allocation of £732,500 for 1982. It is open to the local authority to finance the cost of the pedestrian crossing (estimated at £5,500) from the block grant or from their own resources. I regret, however, that it was not possible to make a specific national road improvement grant in this case, because of the need in present circumstances to allocate the grant under this heading to national works of a more important nature.