Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 June 2023
67. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development how increased funding for the local improvement scheme in County Kerry can be secured as there are 650 applications still waiting on the list. [28561/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am glad to get the opportunity in the Chamber to respectfully ask the Minister to provide more funding for the local improvement scheme, LIS, in Kerry. At present, we have 659 LIS applications and 14 community applications, that is, 673 applications, waiting for funding. Of course, I thank her for the €799,000 she gave earlier in the year which will do only 15 roads, but that leaves a deficit of 673 roads. At the current rate we are going, that will take up to 30 years.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue - an issue that is close to my heart too.
The LIS supports the improvement of rural roads and lane-ways that are not normally maintained by local authorities. As part of Our Rural Future, the Government is committed to ensuring that the LIS is funded into the future.
The scheme was reintroduced by my Department in 2017 following a number of years with no dedicated funding. I am committed to improving connectivity for rural residents, whether it be access to homes, farms or outdoor amenities. Since 2017, my Department has allocated almost €114 million to the scheme. This has upgraded some 3,700 non-public roads and lanes benefiting over 16,000 landowners and residents in these rural areas.
From 2017 to 2022, a total of €6.2 million was allocated to County Kerry, which resulted in improvement works carried out on 173 roads. This is the fifth highest allocation nationally. Within each county's allocation, the prioritisation of roads for submission to my Department is a matter for local authorities in line with the scheme outline.
I launched the 2023 scheme in February with an increase in funding to €12 million. I also announced an additional €550,000 for improvement works on our offshore islands. Within this funding, I allocated almost €800,000 to County Kerry bringing its allocation since 2017 to more than €7 million.
I will continue to monitor expenditure within my Department and should savings emerge, I will give consideration to allocating additional funding to the scheme. Indeed, I have recently asked all local authorities to inform my Department as to how many more projects they could deliver this year, should any such funding become available.
I am committed to ensuring that a well-funded LIS remains in place to deliver on the commitments contained in Our Rural Future.
I thank the Minister for her reply. Deputy Humphreys is a Minister from a rural county and she understands the problem that we have.
I appreciate the funding that we have received but we must go forward. We have 673 roads on the list.
The Department of Finance may be telling the Minister that these are private roads; they are not. They are public roads that were not taken in charge by the local authority. To qualify, you must have at least two landholders. Many of these roads have up to 20 landholders and maybe the same amount of houses. I reiterate these are not private roads or laneways; they are public rights of way that were not taken in charge by the local authority. They are used by households, farmers and service providers, including doctors and public health nurses. These people pay their motor tax, income tax, VAT and excise the same as the people in Dublin. The people on these roads deserve a good road to their door the same as the people in Dublin 4.
I thank the Deputy.
All I can say to him is - and I think he will acknowledge this - I have been pumping the money into the LIS. Over the past five years, my Department has allocated €114 million. In fairness to the former Minister, Deputy Ring, he started the ball rolling.
I know what it is like if the milk lorry cannot get in to get the milk or the meal lorry cannot get in to deliver the meal. I fully understand that. I grew up on a farm and I lived on a lane that was a mile long. There were potholes on it sometimes and you would nearly get lost - bicycle and all.
I explain to the officials in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, as the Deputy does, what these local improvement schemes are. They are not private lanes. The Deputy is dead right; many people use them.
We are talking about once-off funding. Once-off funding could go into these lanes because if they are fixed, they will last 15 years. They are a good investment in rural Ireland. I absolutely support it.
I will be knocking on the door to get more funding for the lanes. The Deputy can be sure of that now and he will help me.
The Minister asked the question: what capacity have the local authorities? In 2005 and 2006, we did exactly 111 roads each year in County Kerry because a certain Deputy was up here at the time and he was able to cajole the then Ministers into providing extra funding later in the year when it was not spent in other places. They have the capacity to do the roads all right if we get the funding.
Some of these people are waiting since 2007. Their applications went in in 2007. There was nothing happening. The Minister is dead right. I held on to the former Minister, Deputy Ring, in the committee. Every day, I was at him to reintroduce the LIS. I thank the Deputy for doing that. I will always thank him because the Department of Finance had stopped the funding going to these roads completely, which was absolutely unfair.
I appeal strongly to the Minister. In light of the fact that we have 673 roads remaining to be done, I ask her for extra funding. I will appreciate her and I will not deny her the credit that is due to her if she can make a case for us to get more funding at this time. With 30 years of a wait, many of us would be long dead, gone and buried and there would be no account of us if we have to wait that long.
I appreciate that Kerry is a large county but so, too, are the resources we have allocated to it. As I have said, since 2017, at more than €7 million, it is the fifth highest allocation in the country.
I have put a call out now and Kerry needs to put in what it is capable of doing.
I know that the Minister has.
It should be noted that Kerry had an LIS underspend in 2022, which represented almost 10% of the total allocation. The local authority did not spend €145,000. That is not the Deputy's fault. That is not my fault.
I did not know that. I will have to have a word with them about that.
The Deputy might have a word with them because I would be doing the same in my county - have a word with them - if they did not spend it.
It is like this. I will do what I can.
In addition, as the Deputy will be aware, I am not the Department of roads but, as I said, we try to support this work. If there is any money that is unspent in any other Department, I am happy to take it and put it in the roads. There is no doubt about that. I am happy for any underspend in roads to go to the LIS schemes. We will spend it.
