William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)

First, I apologise for being late but it was not my fault. The train was 15 minutes late. I will have to talk to the Minister for Transport.

I welcome both the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputies Calleary and Buttimer, here this morning. I hope the Minister does not mind me saying it, but I look upon him as the Santa Claus of Dáil Éireann because he has so much money to give out. It is a great portfolio that he holds. In all my years on the county council, we had so much funding and this programme made such a difference to us. LEADER and other such programmes were a great help. We could not have achieved what we did without the funding. One of the most recent projects in my time was the building of a new library. The Minister's predecessor was down to open it. The library is fantastic. We could not have done what we did without the funding. We got criticism at the time because of the quality of the work and the building we constructed. The footfall into the library is unprecedented - much more than we expected. It is a whole new era. I want to acknowledge the funding provided.

I want to ask the Minister about one area in particular, which he will be familiar with from dealing with public representatives in his own area of Mayo. Even if we quadruple the funding today for local improvement schemes, LIS, we would still only be able to get 50% of the way. I accept that it is very difficult. I gave many years on the local authority. I am aware of cases where there are three, four or five people up a roadway where nothing has been done to it for 25 or 30 years. I put in applications for the local improvement scheme, in the same way as everybody else here has done, but there is no light at the end of the tunnel. We must be aware that everything has changed. All these people are now paying the household charge. In fairness to them, when they come into my clinic, as people do in the clinics of any other representative, they ask what they are getting for paying their household charge. As the year goes on, if the Minister has any extra money, which was often the case in the local authority, we were always delighted to get it, but I cannot stress enough to the Minister and his officials the importance of the local improvement scheme. There must be a cut-off point of five or six years. I am aware of people who have been waiting for it for ten years. That is one point I would like to make.

I support the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme. I thank the Minister for all the work that has been done in that regard. I do not know what we can do about the problem in that regard for communities and local authorities. We need a strategic land bank to purchase land on an ongoing basis, as it becomes available, for recreational purposes. We must look forward ten to 20 years in areas where there is a significant amount of building. Despite what is being said in Leinster House currently, I have never seen so many houses being built in every town and village throughout the country. I say to the Minister and the Minister of State that we need recreational facilities for people, otherwise we will run into trouble. This needs to be supported through the local authorities. They do their best. I was involved in the Estimates meetings for many year. We will put our shoulder to the wheel but we need a little bit of support. Funding would be very much appreciated. As the Minister is aware, it is very important to have recreational facilities built in tandem with housing projects. Given the increased density of housing projects, compared with when we started in local authorities, it is important to have recreational projects done in tandem with the developments. I thank the Minister and the Minister of State. In fairness, we cannot be criticised for asking for support for various areas of importance. All we can do is ask.

I also want to ask about the community recognition fund to support Ukrainian refugees. We had it in Stradbally and especially in Rathdowney in my county. We built modular homes there for them. It is a beautiful project. Will the Minister continue to provide funding to encourage communities by way of giving incentives to soccer clubs, local GAA clubs, badminton clubs and so on, to assist Ukrainians to get involved in the community? I thank the officials here today who came up with that idea. It was very welcome.