Vol. 424 No. 8
205 Mr. O'Leary asked the Minister for the Environment if he will provide Structural Fund or Cohesion Fund finance to improve and modernise the heavily used tourist road between the junction of the Killarney/Cork main road at Poulgorm Bridge and Kenmare, which is now completely unsuitable for carrying the ever increasing volume of industrial and heavy tourist traffic on an annual basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The initial funding for road projects which are assisted from EC Structural Funds is provided by Government road grants. EC assistance is paid to the Department of Finance and is remitted to the Exchequer in partial recoupment of these grants. The same arrangements will probably apply to assistance from the proposed Cohesion Fund.
Road grant funding for non-national roads such as that referred to in the question is generally provided in the form of discretionary grants where the selection of projects to be carried out is a matter for the local authority, subject to general guidelines notified by my Department. If Kerry County Council decide to carry out improvement works on this road for their discretionary grants, it would be open to them to nominate the works for cofinancing from EC funds. Any such nomination would be considered in the light of the selection criteria for the relevant EC funds. However, any EC funding provided as a result would be remitted to the Exchequer in partial recoupment of the road grants.
