asked the Minister for Local Government the counties at present not in receipt of the county road grant from his Department; and if he will consider making the grant available to such counties towards the upkeep and improvement of county roads with a particularly high traffic count.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Road Grants.
36.
Dublin and Meath do not receive a county road improvement grant. This grant was introduced as a temporary measure to assist road authorities in providing untreated county roads with dust-free surfaces. As this purpose has been substantially achieved in the counties referred to, the allocation to them of further grants of this kind would not be warranted. Road fund grants are not allocated to any county for the upkeep of county roads.
Will the Minister not agree that in some counties the engineering staff at the time thought it was more important to have a dust-free road than to have proper alignment? In fact, two counties who did that lost their county road grants while counties who retained the dust-free roads for much longer and improved the alignment are still receiving grants. Does the Minister not agree that this is a hardship on the counties that tried to do what the Department wanted?
I do not agree. The county road improvement grants scheme was introduced in 1949-50 for the primary purpose of providing dust-free surfaces for county roads.