Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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3. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the level of funding that she envisages providing in 2023 for the local improvement scheme; if she intends to increase the level of funding to meet the demand for this very important scheme for rural Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [63051/22]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The local improvement scheme is important in rural Ireland. It is popular. There is considerable demand for the scheme. I acknowledge the fact that the Department has over the years since it was reintroduced funded this scheme as best it could. There is considerable demand for it. In Galway alone, we have probably 150 applications in a waiting list and we have stopped taking applications. I wonder how can we increase funding for the scheme.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Canney for raising this.

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 that the LIS is funded into the future. The scheme makes an important contribution to connectivity in rural Ireland. I am also committed to improving connectivity for rural residents, whether it be access to homes, farms or outdoor amenities.

The local improvement scheme was reintroduced by my Department in 2017 following a number of years with no dedicated funding.

From 2017 to 2022, my Department has allocated over €100 million towards improvement works on over 3,600 non-public roads and lanes benefiting over 16,000 landowners and residents in these rural areas.

I launched the 2022 scheme with an initial budget of €11 million. Over the course of the year additional funding was sourced from savings within my Department and I allocated a further €11 million, effectively doubling investment in LIS to bring the total investment this year to €22 million.

I was pleased, as part of budget 2023, to announce an increase in the base funding for LIS to €12 million.

I will continue to monitor expenditure patterns closely next year in my Department and should savings emerge, I will certainly give consideration again to allocating additional funding to the scheme.

Finally, I am continuing to engage with my colleague, the Minister for Transport, regarding his Department contributing to a jointly-funded LIS scheme so that we can further address the high demand under the scheme.

This is a scheme that Deputy Canney was supportive of when he was a Minister of State in the Department as well. It is an important scheme. Any time that there have been savings in other areas it has gone straight into the LIS scheme. Over the past number of years, we have invested €100 million in it and we have managed to get some of these lists down.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I truly acknowledge the importance of the scheme and the support of the Department and Deputy Humphreys, as Minister, and the previous Minister, Deputy Ring, in reintroducing the scheme.

The Minister hit on the point I wanted to raise. We have active travel. Many of these schemes are used for active travel. They are used for cycling. At the back of my own house, there is a 2 km road which serves bogs and connects two roads and it is used for walking and cycling. In Sylane, we have access to Clas an Aifrinn. It was done over ten years ago under an LIS scheme. It is not only for farmers to get into land. It is creating connectivity. It is creating active travel.

I believe that if the Minister for Transport could see his way to funding on a par with what the Department of Rural and Community Affairs is doing, we would see the list being lifted. It is important that we get co-operation from the Department of Transport on this important scheme.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I agree with Deputy Canney. The Deputy is correct that it is active travel. Where I was reared, it was a lane a mile long. It was very active when one was late for the bus, I can tell the Deputy.

The Deputy is correct because many people use those ways. They are safe places to walk in rural Ireland because it is not safe to walk on the main road.

There are laneways, for example, around lakes or whatever, that people could use. That is a good point the Deputy makes.

The Department of Transport has a large capital budget, far in excess of what my Department has. I have raised the matter with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on a number of occasions. I have not had much success yet but I am a firm believer in the saying that if at first you do not succeed, try and try again. I will continue to keep after the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on this because that Department should be providing matched funding for this. I will raise the good point the Deputy has made with me.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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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.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I will give the updated figures on Galway. It has secured combined funding of over €3.26 billion over the past two years. Forty-nine roads were upgraded in 2021 and a further 50 this year.

Of course, resources are finite but I am tackling the situation. I doubled the LIS roads allocation originally envisaged in last year's budget and this year alone, I invested €22 million in the scheme.

We are making progress in some counties. I was talking to those in Leitrim County Council the other day and it has cleared its backlog, which is good. Some other counties have got it well down. Like Deputy Canney, there are a lot of lanes in my county of Monaghan, and in Cavan. Those local authorities still have a considerably long list. We are working with the local authorities to get a little more detail around the lists because, as the Deputy will be aware, even at local authority level, even in the municipal areas, there are different lists and different lengths of lists.