Vol. 426 No. 5
141 Mr. Barry asked the Minister for the Environment when work on the road to the Kinsale Road section of the South Ring Road in Cork will be started; if there is a precise date for work to commence; if a contract had been signed; when the work will be finished and the cost involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The element of the South Ring Road currently under development will link the Bandon road to the already completed section of the road at the Kinsale Road. The overall project is scheduled for completion by December 1994 at an estimated cost of some £7 million.
142 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for the Environment if he will approve the proposal from Galway County Council to provide a roundabout at the southern exit from Oranmore village, County Galway onto the main Galway-Limerick road; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Formal proposals, including a design, for the provision of a roundabout at the location in question have not, to date, been submitted to my Department by Galway County Council. Discussions have taken place between the Department and the council with a view to deciding the most appropriate treatment for this junction. The traffic situation at the junction is currently being monitored by the local authority. When the assessment has been completed, full consideration will be given to the provision of funding for any works considered necessary.
143 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make special funds available to enable major improvements works to be undertaken on the county road structure in the north and west Connemara area in 1993; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Responsibility for the improvement and maintenance of non-national roads rests with the local authority concerned. The costs of such works fall to be financed by the local authority from its own resources, supplemented by the discretionary grant provided annually by my Department. The determination of priorities in the expenditure of these grants is entirely a matter for the local authority. Galway County Council received £4.683 million in discretionary grants in 1992.
Special grants are occasionally made available to local authorities for projects on non-national roads. However, as I have attempted to maximise the extent to which grants for regional and county roads are provided on a block-grant discretionary basis, so as to give local authorities greater control over their use, the funds available for special grants are necessarily limited. In 1992, such grants came to less than £6 million out of a total provision of £267.48 million for road grants.
The selection of non-national road projects for special road grants in 1993 will be made in the light of the overall level of road grant provision, the competing demands for grants for this type of project throughout the country, and the need for compliance with the criteria for European Regional Development Fund assistance under the Operational Programme on Peripherality. I hope shortly to be in a position to notify local authorities of their road grant allocations for 1993.
