Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 June 2015
674. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to provide full discretion for local authorities in the spending of State grants on regional and local roads within their area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25837/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants. The grants programme is structured to allow Councils considerable flexibility in using grants while also ensuring that there are clear outputs for the monies allocated in terms of length of road maintained or rehabilitated.
The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded under the various grant programmes is a matter for the local authority and in recent years my Department has given additional discretion to local authorities to transfer funding between grant programmes in certain circumstances during the course of the year.
It is important to reiterate that the role of Exchequer funding for regional and local roads is to supplement the own resources of local authorities and I have been emphasising to local authorities the importance of prioritising expenditure on roads when allocating their resources. The Dublin Councils which are in a position to self fund their main roads programme have full discretion over how they spend their resources.
