Vol. 395 No. 5
74 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment the reason for the delay in the provision of road and bridge replacements at Bond Bridge, Maynooth, County Kildare; if work on the project will commence before 1991; the projected cost of the work; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
As Bond Bridge is located on a regional road, primary responsibility for the proposed project rests with the local authority, Kildare County Council. The cost of such works normally falls to be financed from local resources supplemented by the discretionary grants provided by my Department for such roads.
On 23 November last, I notified county councils generally of their discretionary grants for regional and county roads for 1990. In the case of Kildare County Council, these grants total £2,001,000 including a supplementary grant of £0.7 million for improvement works because of the special needs of the county. The 1990 allocation compares with expenditure of £954,000 in 1989. The determination of priorities in the expenditure of these grants is a matter for the local authority.
The local authority's consultants have prepared preliminary design and a cost estimate of £624,000 for a scheme involving improvements to Bond Bridge and the nearby railway bridge and the improvement of the immediate approach roads. The authority have requested special road grant assistance for this scheme. I am not in a position to accede to this request in 1990.
