Sandra McLellan
Question:21. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will make funds available to upgrade the R624, Fota Road, and Slatty Bridge which connects Cobh to the mainland. [27093/14]
View answerThursday, 26 June 2014
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Written answers
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. The initial selection and prioritisation of projects to be funded from these monies is a matter for each local authority.
I am familiar with the R624 Cobh Road project which Deputy Stanton has raised with me on a number of occasions, most recently last Friday when I was at the Irish Open. I appreciate the need to upgrade access to Cobh island. However the position at present is that we do not have the funds to complete a project of this scale.
For the Deputy's information, an application was received from Cork County Council in 2010 for 100% funding of the R624 Cobh Road Project. This project involves the construction of a new road and bridge at an estimated cost of close to €60 million under the Strategic Regional and Local Roads Programme. The reduced funding available for regional and local roads has meant that it has been necessary to suspend grant allocations for major new road and realignment schemes and concentrate resources on the maintenance and rehabilitation of road pavements. Given the reduction in the available funding the Department is not, at this time, in a position to make a commitment to major improvement projects such as the Cobh scheme.