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€950k for road works in Roscommon

Fine Gael Senator Frank Feighan has welcomed a funding allocation of €450,678 to Roscommon for the upgrade of local roads.

“I welcome the announcement by my colleague the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring TD that Roscommon is to receive this substantial investment under the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS).

“This funding is for the improvement of small roads and laneways in rural parts of the county that are not under the normal maintenance of the County Council. It is used to carry out improvement works on private and non-publicly maintained roads. Often these roads lead to multiple residences, parcels of land that support agricultural activity or to amenities such as lakes, rivers or beaches. 

“As a result, the road improvements carried out under this scheme make a huge difference for people living in rural areas accessing their homes and farms, and it is also used to improve local amenities such as graveyards and beaches for the benefit of the whole community as well as visitors. The County Council is responsible for identifying and prioritising roads for improvement works under the scheme.”

“Today a further €10 million has been made available nationally under the LIS. This is in addition to the €10 million allocated earlier this year to Local Authorities because Minister Ring has listened to the demand in local communities for further investment in their local roads. So it’s great that this additional €10 million is now available and it brings to over €37 million the amount of money allocated to Local Authorities by the Minister since he reintroduced the scheme last year.”

Fine Gael Senator Frank Feighan has also welcomed the allocation of €501,000 in funding to assist the repair of regional and local roads in Roscommon.

“Many of the regional and local roads have suffered significant damage as a result of severe weather events and in some cases the county council has been faced with damage caused by repeated severe weather incidents.

“I warmly welcome this special maintenance grant allocation to assist the council in progressing repairs to affected regional and local roads before year end.

“Extreme weather events over the last year, such as Storm Eleanor, Storm Emma, flooding incidents and the summer drought have had a major impact on the regional and local road network.

“These events combined with the extended period of reduced funding for road maintenance following the economic downturn have left the road network much more vulnerable to damage.

“In addition, a €3m allocation is being provided to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to assist with winter operations and maintenance works on national roads. TII assists local authorities with maintenance funding for national roads.

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