Vol. 508 No. 1
578 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will provide funding to repair roads and other damage done in the Louisburgh and west Mayo area during recent storms which washed away roads and caused a lot of other damage. [18511/99]
The maintenance and improvement of non-national roads in their area is a matter for Mayo County Council, to be funded from their own resources, supplemented by allocations from the local government fund. Mayo County Council have been allocated a total of £12,278,000 in non-national roads grants in 1999, which is an increase of 26 per cent on the initial allocation figure for 1998 of £9,770,000 and is up 36 per cent on the 1997 figure. The initial selection of works/projects in County Mayo to which the various categories of non-national roads grants may be applied is a matter for Mayo County Council and my Department has no direct role in this matter.
The memo on grants for non-national roads 1996-1999 specifically reminds local authorities that the cost of remedial works arising as a result of flooding and storm damage must be met from their combined grant and own resources provision and recommends that local authorities provide a contingency sum for works which may be necessitated by severe weather conditions.
Non-national road grants for 1999 have been allocated and there are no funds at the disposal of my Department from which further grants could be made available to county councils.
