Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will answer that, as it will come up. Because of the weather we had last year and everything else, I made a conscious decision for this year to make money available for the local improvement scheme, LIS, at the end of the year. I allocated €10 million nationally to the local authorities in February; we are almost at the end of October and to date, only €5.6 million has been spent. To be honest, I am disappointed. They asked for the money early and I did that. If I give it late, they complain that they have not time to do it. I gave them the money and made a special effort this year to get the funding out to them so that when they are doing whatever tarring programme or works they are undertaking in whatever area, they could also do the LIS. It is very hard for me to give them more money when to date they have only drawn down €5.6 million of €10 million.