Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Guirke. I am visiting Meath tomorrow and on Saturday, so I will be sure to investigate all those projects. We will be opening up RRDF measure 1 late this year or possibly in early January. That application window will be a number of months, given the complexity of the applications required.

On LIS, it is private roads but to be very clear, it is roads that are used by a lot of people. It can be roads into farmland and roads that are in a very difficult state. We have put €135 million into LIS since 2020, so that gives you a sense of travel. We could put another €135 million in within a year and still not get to the backlog. It is a very important scheme. In 2025, the original LIS allocation for Meath €548,771. We increased that by an additional €286,000 to bring it up to approximately €834,700.

I pay tribute to the Deputy's local authority, Meath County Council. It is a huge user of funds from our Department. I want to continue to invest in the local improvement scheme, LIS. I will revert to the Deputy on the community improvement scheme, CIS. That programme is being put into LIS. I will be working with colleagues on the programme for Government commitment to reintroduce scéim na mbóithre áise in Gaeltacht regions. That scheme is a cousin of the LIS focused specifically on Gaeltacht regions.