I am satisfied that Kildare County Council and the urban authorities in County Kildare are receiving sufficient funding to enable them to carry out their responsibilities in relation to the non-national road network.
Kildare County Council has received significant and increasing non-national road grants from my Department in the last few years, for example, £4.8 million in 1996, £5.062 million in 1997, £6.94 million in 1998 and £7.698 million in 1999. The 1999 grant payment represented a 60% increase on the 1996 grant payment.
Local authorities are reminded when notified of their grant allocations each year that it is a matter for each authority to finance weather necessitated works from its own resources, supplemented, as required, from discretionary grant allocations. Local authorities are also advised, in line with established practice, that a contingency provision should be reserved from the overall resources available for non-national roads to deal with damage attributed to severe weather conditions, including flooding.
In the period from 1996 to 1999 Kildare County Council's discretionary maintenance grant payments have increased by some 38% from £0.761 million in 1996 to £1.050 million in 1999.