COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, March 08, 2010

MOTION NO.4

MOTION: Councillor B. Lawlor

That this Council write to the Transport Minister Noel Dempsey to reverse his decision not to provide emergency funding to repair roads, damaged by the recent bad weather. This is not a matter of book keeping its a serious road safety issue.

REPORT:

Circular Letter RLR 03/2010 of 21st January 2010 from the Department of Transport stated that in respect of the Regional and Local Road Grants for 2010 that Road Authorities may incur expenditureof up to 25% of the amounts allocated in April 2009 for Restoration Improvement Grants, Discretionary Maintenance Grants, Discretionary Improvement Grants, Block Grants and Special Block Grants pending the allocation of the 2010 grants. This represents a sum of €626,500 in respect of South Dublin. The circular also indicated that Road Authorities could, as a result of the exceptional weather conditions and the likely damage to roads, revise their Restoration Improvement Programmes and submit revised details to the Department. The necessary inspections and assessments are underway in this regard.

Circular Letter RLR 04/2010 of 22nd February 2010 from the Department of Transport enclosed details of the 2010 grant allocations to this Council in respect of the maintenance and improvement of regional and local roads. The Circular stated that due to the recent severe weather, the Minister has decided to refocus the regional and local road grant categories for 2010, in order to provide local authorities with greater flexibility to deal with the urgent repair of damage to the regional and local road network arising from the recent flooding and prolonged severely cold weather.  The Minister indicated that the priority now has to be the protection of the existing network and the massive investment in it over the last number of years.  To this end, the Minister confirmed that the Restoration Improvement Programme is suspended for 2010 and for this year only, the Restoration Improvement grant and the Discretionary Improvement grant are amalgamated into a single ‘2010 Improvement Grant’. A sum of €2,426,000 has been allocated under this heading to the Council.

In the normal course following the receipt of the allocations for each of the individual grant programmes, a programme is prepared and submitted to each of the Area Committees of the Council for consideration. Having regard to the foregoing, work is underway on the consideration of the necessary revisions in order to finalise and re-priotise the programmes to achieve the objectives set out in the Circulars.

However, if the motion is passed its terms will be conveyed to the Minister for Transport.