Kerry local improvement schemes
Deputy Healy-Rae said funding for local improvement schemes in Kerry is far too slow and the backlog will take decades to clear. The Taoiseach replied that funding had doubled and asked for details so the county's position could be assessed.
As I have done several times before, I wish to raise with the Taoiseach today the issue of funding for the local improvement schemes in Kerry. As I said, I raised this several times last year. I even got the Deputy Chief Whip, Deputy Griffin, interested in the scheme as well. We have had a new list since 2018, which includes applicants since 2007. We got 19 roads done last year. At this rate, it will take 34 or 35 years to complete or to exhaust this list. These are public roads, not private roads like the Department of Finance has said. There is no gate on any one of them. People on these roads pay for everything, from motor tax, to property tax, to income tax. They are ordinary working-class people, people who are going to work, farmers and elderly people who require carers and home help to visit them. Other counties have been allocated funding in proportion to what is on the local improvement scheme list.
Comment on this
The funding was doubled from €10 million to €20 million. The Deputy should acknowledge that.
Comment on this
It does not do much good to double it from eight to 19. That is what happened last year.