Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They seem to be doing fewer of them. We should look at the number of kilometres that are covered. That would probably be a good indication. I am happy to engage. I have reviewed the criteria.

I will come back to Deputy Troy on the part about the second parcel of land needing to be a minimum of 1 ha. I am not sure; I am not across the finer details. We leave it up to the discretion of the local authorities. I take his point. Does it need everybody living on the lane? Does it still qualify without this person who will not sign? I do not know but my gut feeling would be that they go ahead and improve their lane. I will talk to the officials about that. I will ask Westmeath County Council to engage with my departmental officials on those details. Ultimately, I want to help people and that is why I changed the criteria.

I left it up to local authorities to review the applications that did not qualify if they so desired. I am aware of some people who discovered that they did not qualify on the basis of the old criteria, and now they do qualify. They have been told that they need to go to the bottom of the list. The fact that they were on the list for many years should be taken into consideration. The local authorities have a bit of flexibility in what they do. We have to leave it with them. From 2017 up to the end of 2025, Clare will have receive €8.3 million in funding for the roads. That is well in excess of Westmeath, which will get €4.6 million. Mayo will get €10.7 million, Kerry will get €10.3 million and Cork, which is a big county, will get €12.5 million.

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