Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It has done more work for rural Ireland than all the local authorities put together. If we had not the rural social schemes, we would have a serious problem. The Deputy is quite correct as there is now the problem of people being able to stay on it longer. I am talking to the Minister in that regard.

The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, will deal with the broadband matters. We spoke about the national plan and infrastructure earlier and we can speak about it again. I will answer Deputy Penrose's questions in a moment. The time has come for infrastructure to start rolling out in rural Ireland. The Deputy is quite correct. There was mention of the Tuam to Gort bypass, which has given a great lift to Galway. The Government recently announced the Limerick to Cork project. We need the process to continue so as to have a route from Tuam to Claremorris and on to Sligo, Letterkenny and the North. We must work on the N4 and N5, and I know there has been progress because I met representatives of Transport Infrastructure Ireland recently about the Roscommon section. It has been held up too long with problems. The project should have been up and running for the past 20 years but at least now there is a bit of progress being made. It is one of the recommendations I have put in for the national plan. We need a motorway from Dublin that runs past Mullingar to the west of Ireland and Longford. It must be done and we should take it up as an issue.

The Deputies spoke about local improvement scheme, LIS, roads and I will respond to both of them. I reduced rates from 20% down to 15% if there were five houses or more, and to 10% if there were fewer houses. The Deputies raised this. The local authorities are not making any contributions and they should. We are making our portion available and communities are making their 10% and 15% available. There was an issue when I was at the Department dealing with transport regarding the resources that the local authorities check in every day. They could make an allocation of their own funding to the LIS, which they should. To be fair, I know for every Deputy this is seen as one of the better schemes. It is the only scheme for some people to get the road into their house done. As I stated, these people pay their taxes and water charges. Nine times from ten they may not even be connected to a mains water supply. They are entitled to get some contribution for their roads. This is a scheme I started and I would like to build on it. I do not see any reason the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport cannot come up with a further process to put a bit of funding into the LIS. The Minister, Deputy Ross, should be brought before the committee and it could be discussed with him. It should not be left to me and he should put some funding into it as well. That Department has a massive budget so if it made a contribution, along with my Department, local authorities and the people in the area, it would be helpful. It is something that should be done.

I have dealt with "rural-proofing". The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, will address broadband matters before I answer Deputy Penrose's questions.