Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not like to say this to the Deputy, but the roads in Wexford cannot be that bad. I allocated €329,878 to Wexford and the total paid out to date is nil. Wexford has not drawn down one penny from the LIS scheme this year. The Deputy cannot expect me to consider giving any more LIS money when the local authority has not drawn down one penny. I will outline some other figures in the country. I gave them the money in February because I listened to people like the Deputy - to be fair to him, he is right and I agree with him - as well as my colleagues who told me that the local authorities were getting the money too late. I allocated the money in February and to date of the €10 million, I have paid out €1,977,914. That is 19.78% which has been paid out to local authorities. There is something very wrong if that is happening. If there is such demand for the LIS, that money should be drawn down and spent by now.

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