Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Martin Kenny raised the issue of the €40,000 grant. It is the responsibility of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The proof that any scheme is working is that there is a major drawdown. That is why I am looking at this pilot scheme. There is no point in bringing in any scheme if it is unworkable. That is why I am looking at this pilot scheme in an effort to target precisely what Deputy Martin Kenny is talking about. Its purpose is to give a substantial grant to see if a family or family member will go and live in a house. We will come back with more detail on that scheme. I am working with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government on it. It is something I am looking at. If we are going to bring in a pilot scheme, it has to be dealt with in a way that it is not too difficult to draw down from the scheme. The people who are making the application need to be able to match whatever funding is needed. It is something we are looking at.

The Deputy talked about the LIS and I am glad he raised it because I need to put a few things on the record. I am annoyed with some of the local authorities and local authority members around the country. I wish to make clear that I do not pick the schemes for the LIS. I am the person who brought back the scheme. This Department provided the funding for the scheme. We do not pick the roads. I resent some of the remarks from members of Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Fine Gael that I am the one who picked the roads because I did not. We wrote to local authorities and we asked them to send us a list of the schemes in order that we could put them up on the website to make sure the schemes are done. It is a safety mechanism for the schemes. The councils select them. I saw a letter in the paper yesterday commenting on Meath. Meath had only eight roads. Meath County Council got €359,000. What I did with the scheme was that every local authority, big or small, got at least €250,000. That was the smallest amount they could get and €1 million was the biggest amount they could get. We only had €10 million. I did not pick any of the schemes. There has been no change in the scheme since 2002. I did not make one change in the scheme. It was the same scheme and operated in the same way. I did not interfere with it in any way.

I resent the remarks from people to the effect that I picked them. Those people do not have the courage or guts to talk to officials in their own councils who make the decisions. I did not change the rules in any way. I am glad the scheme is up and running in Deputy Kenny's county and that the council there decided on 11 roads on the basis of the €250,000 allocation.

Again, a newspaper made a comparison between Mayo getting so many roads and other counties. It was not about the roads; it was about the funding. The council in Mayo got €855,000. The council in Cork got €1 million. Donegal County Council was allocated €884,000 but did not confine the list. The council sent in a list amounting to €70 million and wanted the Department to pick the schemes. We are not picking the schemes. The council has received a letter and if it does not prioritise its roads in the next two weeks, I will reallocate that money later on in the year to the local authorities. I am not picking the roads and I will not pick the roads. That is not my job nor is it the job of the Department. We have no hand, act or part in respect of the roads - I am keen to put that on the record. It is a matter for the local authorities. I did not change the scheme from what was in place in the past. Whatever way the scheme operated in the past is the way it is operating now.