The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of the relevant local authority 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. Each local authority is the contracting authority for the purpose of implementation of regional and local road improvement projects.
Under Project Ireland 2040 my Department is committed at present to providing grant funding towards the cost of 12 significant capital road improvement schemes, including the Athy Southern Distributor Road. As regards grant expenditure to date on this scheme, the Regional and Local Road payment booklets available in the Oireachtas library provide details of grant payments made by my Department in previous years. As regards 2019, €3 million was allocated to the Athy scheme at the start of the year and €617,778 of the allocation has been drawn down to date this year.
The Project Ireland 2040 road improvement projects are managed on a programme basis with allocations determined on an annual basis depending on progress with individual schemes and taking into account the available capital budget.