Anthony Lawlor
Question:236. Deputy Anthony Lawlor asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide details with regard to maintaining the funding of local authorities in counties with high road usage. [53457/13]
View answerThursday, 12 December 2013
Questions (236)
Written answers
Firstly I would like to explain that the improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads, in its area, is a statutory function of each road authority in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act, 1993. Works on such roads are a matter for the relevant local authority to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants.
I announced the 2013 regional and local road grant allocations in January this year providing €347 million to local authorities for works on regional and local roads. I also provided an additional €2.7 million for drainage works on regional and local roads in March this year. More recently, (12th June) I announced an additional €50 million to County and City Councils for regional and local roads bringing the overall amount available in 2013 to approximately €400 million.
The main two road grants are the Restoration Improvement and the Restoration Maintenance grants. Both of these grants are allocated based on the length of mileage of regional and local roads within the county. In the case of counties that experience higher road traffic than the norm, a loading is applied to the mileage within the county. In the case of Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council a factor of 2 is applied, one of 1.5 is applied for Fingal and South Dublin County Councils while a factor of 1.2 is used for Kildare, Louth and Meath County Council.
Details of the regional and local road grant payments to local authorities are outlined in the regional and local road grant payment booklets which are available in the Oireachtas Library. Details of the 2013 regional and local road grant allocations to each local authority are also available in the Oireachtas Library. The 2014 grant allocations will be announced early in the New Year.