The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of the relevant County Council, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from the Council's own resources supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the Council.
My Department allocates funding at local authority level and allocations to individual Municipal Districts are a matter for the Council. Cork County Council was given an allocation of €492,500 under the Safety Improvement Grant Programme at the start of 2017 and this amount was paid to the Council. The Council did advise my Department during the year that it would be difficult to progress some of the planned safety projects last year and indicated that it was proposing to re-allocate funding. Cork County Council is best placed to advise the Deputy in relation to the rationale for the funding decisions taken within the County in 2017.