The discretionary grant for regional and local road maintenance and upkeep across Mayo has seen a €1 million increase for 2014 compared to the 2013 allocation. The allocation for this year will be €4.6 million. This money will be spent on roads that Mayo County Council include in its annual roadworks scheme which is currently being prepared. The announcement of the grant was made by Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring who said: “The good news is that the allocation for discretionary grants is up from €3.6m last year to €4.6 million this year. A percentage of this money can be used for Local Improvement Schemes. This spending will be at the discretion of the councillors and the county council.”
He continued, “Restoration works have €2.6 million and improvement works has a 12 per cent increase in 2014. Across the three main grant headings for upkeep and maintenance of regional and local roads the allocation for Mayo has increased from €15.4m at the start of 2013 to €16.57m this year.”
The threshold for Local Improvement Scheme (LIS ) funding has also been doubled this year, whereas last year seven percent of the discretionary budget could be allocated to LIS schemes, this year up to 15 per cent of the discretionary budget can be used for these schemes.
Minister Ring welcomed this increase saying, “I strongly welcome this increase as it will enable work to be carried out of some of the LIS roads in the county which are in urgent need of repair.”
