Roads

Deputy Joe Carey

To ask the Minister for Transport the amount of money that was granted to each local authority in County Clare in response to the exceptional road related costs associated with repairing the damage sustained in late 2009 early 2010; the amount of this money that remains to be drawn down by each local authority in County Clare as at the end of November 2010 in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister Noel Dempsey

The 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 and are supplemented by State road grants paid by my Department.

Local authorities provided details of exceptional road related costs, which fell outside the normal financial provision for winter maintenance as a direct result of the damage sustained in late 2009/early 2010.  I took account of this information received when deciding on the allocations to local authorities of €411million for 2010. 

I decided to defer the planned rehabilitation works on regional and local roads in 2010, in order to provide greater flexibility to local authorities to address the damage sustained and I requested that they carefully target resources to address, on a priority basis, the most urgently required repairs.

It is not, therefore, possible to isolate specific amounts of money from the funds allocated to each local authority in County Clare in the manner sought by the Deputy, but I understand that all of the funding allocated to these local authorities for regional and local roads in 2010 will be drawn down by year-end.

The following table shows for information the amount allocated to each local authority in County Clare, the amount paid to date and the balance remaining to be paid at end November 2010.