Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 21 Jun 1994

Vol. 444 No. 1

Written Answers. - County Roscommon Road Network.

John Connor

Question:

10 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that over 500 miles of the county road network in County Roscommon is in a deficient and dangerous condition and is deteriorating rapidly; if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that the funds allocated by his Department to Roscommon County Council in 1994 for repair and upkeep of the network is only 30 per cent of what is necessary; and if he will take responsibility for the legal actions that will be initiated to recover for loss and damage directly resulting from the neglect of these roads.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. M. Smith)

State aid is provided to supplement, and not to substitute for, spending from local authorities' own resources on the improvement and maintenance of non-national roads. This aid is allocated by way of discretionary grants and, for the first time in 1994, under a new scheme of EU co-financed grants for specific improvement works.

In the case of Roscommon, the discretionary grant allocations to the council amount to £2.674 million in 1994. In addition, under the scheme of specific improvement grants, allocations totalling £1.382 million have been notified to the council. The total State grant allocations to the council for non-national roads in 1994 are, accordingly, £4.056 million which is an increase of £950,000 on the grants paid in 1993.

The bulk of the State aid available in 1994 for non-national roads was allocated in the form of discretionary grants to county councils for improvement and maintenance works. The normal discretionary grants (excluding supplementary improvement grants and pilot schemes grants) were allocatedpro rata, on the basis of road mileage, except in the case of County Dublin which received a supplement to take account of heavier traffic volumes. In the case of County Roscommon, a supplementary improvement grant of £200,000 was also allocated, over and above the normal discretionary grants.

The allocation of EU co-financed grants for specific improvement projects was based on proposals submitted by the individual local authorities. The projects submitted by local authorities were evaluated and prioritised on a merit basis in accordance with EU criteria. Grant allocations under this heading to individual authorities will be liable to significant change from year to year, depending on the level of commitments on ongoing approved schemes, and the merits of new proposals.

In 1994, State road grants for non-national roads totalling £106.4 million were allocated to local authorities. I am satisfied that all the authorities, including Roscommon County Council received their proper share of these significant State funds. I might point out in this connection that total grants for County Roscommon have increased by over 30 per cent in 1994 alone, and by 80 per cent since 1989.