Vol. 429 No. 1
35 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for the Environment the category in which the main Waterford to Dublin road, N9, comes under; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that no structural funds were allocated from the 1989 to 1993 programme; and if he will ensure that a substantial allocation is made available from the 1994 to 1998 programme, in view of the sub-standard nature of large sections of this road.
The N9 forms part of the network of national primary routes. Over £35 million in road grants has been paid to the relevant local authorities in respect of improvement works on the route in the period 1989-92, all of which has been co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund at a rate of up to 75 per cent.
Improvement schemes carried out or underway include realignment at Paulstown, County Kilkenny costing £693,000 and the Kilcullen element of the Newbridge-Kilcullen by-pass project. This latter has an overall cost estimate of some £58 million, of which about a third relates to the Kilcullen link. Spending on the project to the end of 1992 amounted to over £32 million. In addition, a total of £2.426 million was paid in the period for other improvement works on the route.
