asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the serious state of the roads in County Louth due to the shortage of finance; if his Department have any plans to review the 1988 allocation for county roads to Louth County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - County Louth Roads.
40.
I am fully aware of the general condition of the network of roads throughout the country, including roads in County Louth. The relevant information is available in my Department as a result of ongoing contact with local authorities as well as submissions received from local authorities and representative bodies such as the County and City Engineers' Association. Detailed information has been received from all county councils, in response to a departmental circular, issued in May 1987, about the condition of the network of county roads together with estimates of the level of investment required to remedy deficiencies in the network. I am considering this information in the context of the preparation of the proposed blueprint for road development.
The moneys available to me for road grants in 1988 were fully allocated to local authorities in November last. The grant allocation notified to Louth County Council is £2.036 million, which represented an increase of 6 per cent on the local authority's road grant expenditure in 1987. I have no other sources of finance available to provide for increases in the grant allocations notified to any local authority.