Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 26 Apr 1990

Vol. 397 No. 10

Written Answers. - County Roscommon Road Maintenance.

John Connor

Question:

37 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that County Roscommon has the worst roads in the country and that the allocation for repair and maintenance of county roads is totally inadequate and well below the national average per mile for funding; and, in view of these facts, the plans he has to increase his Department's allocation to Roscommon County Council to restore the situation to normality.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. Flynn)

I am aware of the condition of roads generally, including roads in County Roscommon.

Responsibility for undertaking any works on the network of non-national roads, including the provision of the necessary finance, is primarily a matter for the local authorities. County councils may use the discretionary grants for non-national roads paid by my Department to supplement expenditure from their own resources on regional and county roads. The discretionary block grants, apart from those for Dublin County Council, have been allocated strictly in proportion to the mileage of regional and county roads in each county.

The 1990 State road grants for Roscommon County Council amount to £4,908,000. The provision comprises £2,033,000 for national roads and £2,875,000 for regional and county roads. It includes discretionary block grants amounting to £2,485,000. In addition, a supplementary discretionary grant of £200,000 for improvements to regional and county roads has been allocated to the authority in recognition of the special needs of the county. Altogether, the 1990 discretionary grants represent an increase of 27 per cent on the level of equivalent grants to the authority for 1989.

I am satisfied that Roscommon County Council have received their fair share of the funds available to me for road grants in 1990.