Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I will lend my support to the Minister's campaign with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I believe that in rural Ireland - earlier the Minister mentioned a region that is lagging in all of this type of thing - a scheme such as this is popular. There is demand for it. It is efficient. The local authorities are doing a great job in getting the works done.

In the Department, it was always the case that if there was money lying around, it was not left lying around; it was put into the LIS scheme. Coming from zero in 2017, I acknowledge the €22 million that was put into the scheme last year. It is important that we continue that momentum but at Cabinet level there is a need to make sure that there is an emphasis on continuing something that is good, that is working and that is giving benefit to rural Ireland. If the funding was to be doubled, we would get rid of this backlog in a short time. The active travel fund is there sufficiently to allow a small percentage to go to the LIS scheme.

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