Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 December 2016
515. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if specific funding will be allocated to the National Roads Authority to resume planning and design of a road (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40916/16]
View answerCavan County Council was provided with over €2m in the period 2007-2014 by my Department in connection with this project under the Strategic Non National Road Grants Scheme in order to bring this 75 km route to preliminary design stage. Due to budgetary constraints it is not possible to progress the scheme further at this point.
The transport element of the Capital Plan sets investment priorities to 2022 and was framed by the conclusions reached in my Department’s Strategic Investment Framework for Land Transport. Based on the findings in that report it is envisaged that maintenance and renewal of the road network will continue to be the main priority over the next period and the bulk of the roads capital budget, over €4 billion, is earmarked for such essential work with a further €600 million allocated for implementation of the PPP road programme which is already underway. In this context the East/West link was one of the schemes that it was not possible to include given the overall funding envelope available. The construction cost for a scheme of this magnitude would be in excess of €150 million.
