Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking these questions. The LIS is extremely important to rural areas, as she well knows. In County Clare, 172 applications have been approved. Clare County Council estimates that even though these are approved applicants, it will take eight to nine years to fulfil them on the basis of the current funding model. As Deputies, we receive announcements. We received one a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was brilliant that we were getting extra funding. When I read through the email, however, I saw that the funding would be across two years. Last year, Clare County Council got €1.3 million for one calendar year. Now, it is getting €2 million for two calendar years. The Minister referred to the 2024-25 period. Is this for two full calendar years or is it akin to a sporting season where one year runs into the other? If this is the current funding model, it will set us further back. It will mean that people in Clare will be waiting for more than a decade to get their roads done. The funding falls well short of what is needed in County Clare.

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