In the budget there is a 10% increase allocated to fixing the roads while the overall budget to local authorities was decreased by 7%. There is a commitment in the programme for Government for this Government to restore fully the local improvement scheme.

That was a very beneficial scheme in terms of supporting the upgrade and repair of non-local authority roads across rural Ireland. Can the Minister confirm to the House today that this scheme is to be introduced, when that will happen and if there will be a specific allocation to each local authority to administer the scheme?

I will have to ask the Minister, Deputy Ross, to answer that question in detail for the Deputy.

He would not know.

As the Deputy said, there is a commitment in the programme for Government to reintroduce it, so it will be reintroduced, but I cannot tell the Deputy the exact timeframe. During my time in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport we allowed local authorities to decide from their discretionary grant and discretionary budget whether they wanted a local improvement scheme.

Could the budget not help to do that?

In many ways, that made sense because some local authorities want to prioritise roads that are not taken in charge and others do not. Any commitment in the programme for Government will be honoured, but the exact timeline would be a matter for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to communicate directly with the Deputy.