Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 26 Feb 1991

Vol. 405 No. 6

Written Answers. - County Louth Roads Expenditure.

Dermot Ahern

Ceist:

143 Mr. D. Ahern asked the Minister for the Environment if he will outline the allocation of money from his Department for all roads upkeep, other than national, primary and secondary roads, for the past ten years for the county of Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. Flynn)

State road grant assistance towards the cost of maintenance works on urban roads is provided in the form of an annual block grant which supplements the provisions made by the local authorities, from their own resources, for the maintenance and improvement of these roads. The proportion of the grants to be applied to maintenance, and the selection of works to be undertaken, were matters for the local authorities subject to guidelines issued by my Department. The block grants to Drogheda Corporation and Dundalk Urban District Council since 1981 are as follows:

	Drogheda Corporation	Dundalk UDC
	(£000)	(£000)
1981	64	69
1982	64	69
1983	70	75
1984	70	31
1985	77	37
1986	93	127
1987	93	100
1988	93	100
1989	93	100
1990	103	100

In the case of county councils, a similar system of block grants applied during the period 1981 to 1988 with the grants supplementing local authority resources for the maintenance and improvement of regional roads and for the improvement of county roads. As with the block grants to urban authorities, the proportion of the grants to be applied to maintenance, and the selection of works to be undertaken, were matters for the local authorities subject to guidelines issued by the Department. The block grants to Louth County Council during that period were as follows: 1981, £139,000; 1982, £139,000; 1983, £151,000; 1984, £151,000; 1985, £170,000; 1986, £187,000; 1987, £187,000; 1988, £187,000.

Since 1989, a revised system of discretionary road grants to county councils, for works on non-national roads, has been in operation, with separate block grants for the maintenace of these roads and for their improvement. The discretionary grants to Louth County Council in 1989 and 1990 were £548,000 and £1.083 million respectively of which £98,000 and £102,000 respectively were in the form of block grants for maintenance works.