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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 1 Jul 1986

Vol. 368 No. 8

Written Answers. - Clare Road Grants.

48.

asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make a special grant available to Clare County Council to enable the authority to carry out major improvements on the Miltown Malbay/Kilrush road and the Ennis/Scariff/Killaloe road, in view of the urgent necessity to improve the condition of the roads in question.

Apart from a section of the Miltown Malbay/Kilrush road which is classified as national secondary route N 67, the roads in question form part of the network of regional roads.

The improvement of the N67 is being carried out on a phased annual basis with the aid of full cost road grants. The 1986 grant commitments for improvement works on the road total £200,000 in respect of work at Calluragh and between Kilrush and the ferry terminal. The road will also benefit from the 1986 commitment of £554,000, notified for maintenance of the national secondary roads in County Clare.

Primary responsibility for the planning and execution of any improvement works on regional roads, including the timing and the provision of the necessary finance, rests with the local authority. The local authority may, at their discretion, use the block grant for roads to supplement expenditure from their own resources for such works. The block grant of £711,000 made available to Clare County Council in 1986 represents an increase of 22 per cent on the corresponding grant in 1985. In addition, the 1986 road grant commitments notified to the local authority include a sum of £90,000 for regional road strengthening and I understand that part of this grant will be used to finance works at Cooraclare, between Miltown Malbay and Kilrush. A road grant commitment of £130,000 has been provided this year towards the cost of improvement works at Tuamgreany, south of Scariff.

It is not possible, at this stage, to provide any additional road grants because the funds available in 1986 have been fully allocated.

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