I propose to take Questions Nos. 530 and 531 together.
The 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.
On 23 January this year, I announced the €331.9m investment programme in 2014 for regional and local roads. The economic reality of recent years has meant significant reductions in roads budgets across the board and the 2014 allocation represents a cut of 17% on the 2013 budget. This year, I have however been able to protect funding for road maintenance and repair by curtailing some grant programmes, including the Specific Grant Programme. Our priority is to maintain the existing road network, and unfortunately this means that there is little scope for carrying out new road improvement projects. Applications were sought for minor bridge repair works (which is a subset of the current Specific Grant Programme) for 2014. This is in line with focusing monies on road and bridge maintenance and rehabilitation.
Allocations have been made this year for improvement projects where commitments are in place i.e. 30 projects under the Specific Improvement Projects scheme and 13 existing Strategic schemes. In addition allocations have been made for 245 low-cost safety projects and 162 bridge rehabilitation projects.
It is also important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer grants for regional and local roads is to supplement Councils' own resources spending in this area. It is also open to Councils to fund projects from their own resources, these include commercial rates and the local government fund which is in turn made up receipts from Motor Tax and the Local Property Tax.
