Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Part of the Bill relates to ensuring money can be rolled over from projects that are not completed or carried out in the current year and transferred to the following year. I am putting in my stake in respect of any moneys left over. There are 676 local improvement schemes on a list below in Kerry. Last year, 11 of them were done and 19 were done this year. It is totally unfair on those people. Of the 676 schemes, there are 90 or so old applications going back as far as 2006 or 2007 that were lumped in with the applications submitted in 2018. That is very wrong. Many of them are still waiting.

I ask that any money hanging around should be directed to the local improvement schemes in Kerry.

There is another aspect of the local improvement scheme that was called an emergency hardship scheme. It related to roads used by nurses, doctors or home help personnel to visit a patient. That scheme would help those people but for the past four or five years we have not got a bob for those kinds of roads. We are in dire straits. I know money cannot be left behind so I am in favour of the Bill if the Government ensures it directs any money left over towards two schemes, which are the local improvement and emergency hardship schemes. I would appreciate such action on behalf of the people of Kerry.

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