Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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4. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will seek to increase significantly the local improvement scheme funding to ensure that a real impact can be made on the list of schemes to be carried out by each county council; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28017/22]

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question No. 4, in the name of Deputy Pringle, will be taken by Deputy Connolly.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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This question also applies to Galway so I am happy to take it on behalf of Deputy Pringle. It specifically relates to whether the Minister intends to increase local improvement scheme funding significantly to ensure it has a real impact. This goes back to a previous reply that indicated there were no reliable data relating to the actual demand and the number of roads. I ask the Minister to factor that into her answer, even though it is not specifically asked. The rationale behind that is that data are missing on how to assess whether the money the Department is giving is effective.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The local improvement scheme, LIS, supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities. As part of Our Rural Future, the Government is committed to ensuring the scheme is funded into the future.

The LIS was reintroduced in 2017 following a number of years with no dedicated funding in place. The scheme is administered locally by the relevant local authority, which is responsible for prioritising and selecting eligible applications within broad parameters set by my Department. Following the launch of the LIS with the confirmation of county allocations, each local authority submits a priority list of roads, as well as a reserve list to my Department before works commence locally.

From 2017 to 2021, my Department allocated €80 million towards improvement works on more than 3,000 non-public roads and lanes benefiting over 13,000 landowners and residents in these rural areas. I was pleased, as part of budget 2022, to announce an increase in the base funding for the LIS from €10.5 million to €11 million this year. I announced details of the 2022 scheme in early April and approvals have now been issued for works to commence to all but one local authority. Last year, I was in a position to double the initial LIS allocation to €21 million following the identification of savings in other capital areas. This year, I am continuing to monitor expenditure patterns closely. Should savings emerge, I will certainly give consideration to allocating additional funding to the scheme again.

On the issue of funding, different local authorities have different criteria. Some are open to new applications in respect of the numbers on the list, while others are working their way through historical lists on a first come, first served basis. Some local authorities only include eligible applications in their returns to my Department and others appear to include all historical applications. It is hard to get exactly correct data but my officials are working on these issues.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Minister. I appreciate the fact the money has doubled. Arising from previously, the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, set out to look at whether there is value for money. Its focused assessment, which the Minister referred to in a previous reply, included as part of recommendation 4 that it was necessary to carry out an estimate of "the scale of the relevant non-public road network" in Ireland. She said at that point that this recommendation was being considered along with others.

9 o’clock

That was 2020 and we are now in 2022. Deputy Pringle feels that his county is losing out in the allocation of funding because of the change to allocations based on geographical criteria. Saying exactly what the scale of the non-public roads is is complex, but where does the recommendation stand, given that the Minister stated it was under active consideration?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I made a large additional allocation last year, which was welcomed, and I am committed to supporting the LIS. Some local authorities did not spend all of their allocation last year. Donegal was one of those. Its spend was €35,000 short. We allowed it to carry that amount into this year, but its 2022 allocation has been reduced as a result of the shortfall in delivery.

The assessment is not uniform. As the Deputy knows, different local authority engineers in different municipal areas will deem some roads on the list eligible while others will not. Even within local authorities, there are differences in how the figures are compiled. My officials are exploring these issues and we are consulting the local authorities to try to ensure that a consistent data set is available.

Regarding the Deputy's county of Galway, the 2022 LIS allocation is €958,831. The total allocation for 2021 was €1.58 million.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I am zoning in on this because the Minister's previous answers were given in the context of the absence of reliable data. While I appreciate that the figures seem large and they have increased, it is difficult to put them in context without adequate data. The IGEES produces these reports, which are very good and tell us whether there has been value for money. According to the IGEES, and the Minister repeated it, there are no reliable data on the matter.

Where does this specific consideration stand? Will we have a report on it and what is going to happen? The key element for Deputy Pringle in this is the allocating of funding based on geography as opposed to demand. My experience has been that demand on the ground is much greater than the allocation.

There are two issues, one of which is the absence of reliable data, as highlighted by the focused public policy assessment.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Funding is allocated each year based on the geographical area of each county, with a minimum and a maximum allocation applied, and the basis for allocating funds is reviewed each year. My Department has received indicative figures from the local authorities for the applications on hand. We need to be sure that the figures provided for each county are comparable.

The officials are examining these issues and consulting local authorities. It takes time, but the most important point to make is that we are making some inroads into the lists. My constituency counties are no different from any other, as both Cavan and Monaghan have long lists. However, we must remember that this fund was closed for a good number of years. In fairness to my predecessor, Deputy Ring, he was the man who reopened it. It has been running ever since and a good deal of funding has been invested in it. I appreciate that there are lists, but the LIS was always funded by the Department of Transport. I have been in contact with the Minister to see what his Department can bring to the table in this regard.