Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to confirm anything at this stage. We have opened the scheme and are looking through the applications. One thing that worked in my Department under the previous Minister, Heather Humphreys, is that we allocated money to it from savings in the Department. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I have asked that this continue. I am engaging with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, regarding funding from that Department because the LIS is really important. We introduced changes to try to make it more open to people this year.

I also draw attention to the fact that some local authorities spend it differently and seem to spend it more efficiently than others. I am looking at the amount spent per kilometre of road. We will be doing a little bit more work on that with the local authorities. For instance, one local authority spends €15.60 per square metre, while another spends €49.15. This is a relatively small island. I know there are cost disparities but there cannot be that level of cost disparity. The average across local authorities is €31.19. I agree that different LIS and different roads require different budgets but I will be doing some work on this. I have asked my Department officials to do some work on those kinds of disparities between local authorities. Neither of those local authorities are in Kerry by the way. I want to get to understand them and I want to ensure we are getting value for money, given the substantial investment we are making.

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