Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was on the local authority in Leitrim for many years. The way it worked in Leitrim was that if one person applied to get a road done and was number ten and the next person who applied was down as number 11, then the person who was number ten came up on the list first and that person got the road done first. There was strict order. A person had to be living on the road or there had to be at least two landowners.

That was the scheme we ran in the council. We were lobbied from all over the place. People said their roads were worse than others and so on. We decided the scheme was fair and that if a person got an application in first, it would go to that person first. If a person could provide matched funding, the works would go ahead; if not, the person would be left off until next year.

In fairness, it was a good scheme and it worked well for many years. The only problem I have with the scheme is that there is not enough money for it. I am not saying the Minister or anyone in his Department picks the roads. The local authorities pick the roads and it is up to the local authorities to do that fairly. I believe in most cases they have done it fairly.