Vol. 459 No. 6
23 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for the Environment his views on the decrease in payment in respect of non-national roads to Cork Corporation; and if he intends to increase funding to the level which was obtained in 1985. [18428/95]
The basic discretionary block grant to Cork Corporation for the maintenance and improvement of non-national roads stood at £810,000 in the years 1991-1993 and was increased to £1 million in both 1994 and 1995, an increase of over 23 per cent. In addition, a grant allocation of £200,000 is available to the corporation this year for two projects under the EU co-financed scheme, bringing their total grant allocations for non-national roads to £1.2 million in 1995.
The exceptional grant payment of £1.944 million in 1985 to Cork Corporation does not give a realistic picture of the true level of State grants to the corporation over the last decade and cannot legitimately be used as a benchmark to assess payment for subsequent years. The 1985 total included payments of £1.477 million under a special grants scheme available at that time and a discretionary grant of £517,000. Allowing for inflation over the last decade, the 1995 discretionary grant allocation to the corporation represents an increase of about 46 per cent on the corresponding 1985 figure.
