Batt O'Keeffe
Question:7 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for the Environment if he intends to provide funding for a new road from the Pier to the Point in Crosshaven, County Cork. [19178/95]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Cork Road Funding.
Cork County Council has not submitted any proposals to my Department regarding the construction of this road. In any event, the cost of such a road would normally fall to be funded by the council from its own resources, supplemented by the annual discretionary grants provided by my Department. The council's discretionary grant allocations in 1996 amount to nearly £2.5 million and their total share of State grants for non-national roads will exceed £13.6 million.
It is also open to Cork County Council to consider whether to apply at a future date for funding under the EU co-financed scheme of specific improvement grants for projects on non-national roads which are shown to be of economic benefit and help to generate employment.
I was aware Cork County Council had not made its submission to the Minister but my purpose in raising this question is to highlight the fact that it had not been made and to perhaps embarrass the officials into ensuring that a submission is made in the near future.
Deputy O'Keeffe's county manager will not be sending him a Christmas card next year.
I also want to inform the Minister that the Ford Ireland Week, which attracts 25,000 visitors, is held in Crosshaven which is a tourist centre in its own right. When the application for EU funding is eventually submitted, I hope the Minister and his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Toddy O'Sullivan, will consider making it a priority for funding for 1997.
I can confirm that the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, has had ongoing and lengthy discussions with me on this project and he has made a strong case. As I indicated to him, I will facilitate this project in any way open to me.
When Deputy O'Sullivan made his representations did the Minister tell him he had a nerve given the amount of money allocated to his constituency for the downstream crossing? The Minister told me today that I had a nerve to ask for money for Blackpool.
That is very sad.
Did the Minister tell Deputy O'Sullivan he had a nerve?
Let us confine our remarks to the subject matter of the question.
The previous question dealt with grants for national roads. Cork has done reasonably well in this regard and it has also been allocated £13.6 million for non-national roads.
The discretionary grant has been reduced by £1.6 million.
It also received more than £2 million in a special allocation towards the end of last year. Cork deserves every penny of this money.
And it does not have a Minister.