Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 May 2013
711. Deputy Dominic Hannigan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a road (details supplied) has been closed; if there is any funding available for the works on the road to be carried out; if there are any emergency funds that the council may apply for to his Department to fix the road; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25229/13]
View answerThe improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities own resources supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority.
There have been very large reductions in the funding available for roads expenditure over the past number of years. Regional and local roads funding has reduced from €607 million in 2007 to €350 million in 2013. Meath County Council has been allocated over €10.7 million this year in regional and local road grants. From this allocation, the Council is being provided with over €1.8 million in Discretionary Grants from which these works on the L56042 may be undertaken. It is also open to the Council to carry out works on this road under its Restoration Improvement programme for which the Council has an allocation of €5.5 million.
Given the current financial position the main focus will have to be on the maintenance and repair of roads and it will be necessary for local authorities to decide how best to manage their road budgets within the funding available. In this context Councils have been given significant flexibility this year in the use of State grants and the reality of the funding position means that in all areas of activity priorities have to be set.
It is also important to re-iterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement Councils like Meath County Council in their own resources spending in this area.
