Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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This matter from Senator O’Reilly is very interesting. It relates to the need for the Minister for Rural and Community Development to amend the eligibility requirements for the local improvement scheme, in particular the need to remove the requirement to have a house on at least 1 ha of land when there is only one other landowner with a herd number. We are all aware of these cases. Senator O’Reilly may now make his case.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Acting Chair for the recognition of the relevance of this matter to real people and families. I also thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting it to be taken. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth. It is always great to have him in the Seanad. His answers are always lucid and frank. I recognise the fact that he is here representing my constituency colleague the Minister, Deputy Humphreys.

It is important to put this matter in context. The Minister allocated €40 million, a record allocation, to the local improvement scheme which is really about little byroads, laneways and little roads where real people live - taxpayers, service users, pensioners or whomever– and who want access to the main road. It is about assisting them. The Minister gave €40 million in April, I think. All that combines to €170 million invested in the schemes since 2017. I welcome all of that. However, we must always keep perfecting things. The situation now is that one active farmer, a farmer with a herd number, must live on a laneway, there must be another landowner and, of course, there has to be a residence but the difficulty is that the residence requires one hectare of land around the residence.

Most residences, whether rural or urban, where they are not active farmers, have a half acre around the residence. It is normal. Particularly around the time of a housing crisis it is probably arguable that is enough. I am suggesting that if there is a resident on a laneway with that half acre and their house and there is also an active farmer on that laneway, there is an arguable case, and this is my view, that they should be accepted to the scheme. That is not to say that people who have other accesses who can get out to the main road otherwise, and some of those apply for the scheme, are not naturally entitled to it or where the lane is not effectively in use are not entitled to it. I am talking about a case where there is an active farmer, a householder, with the standard amount of land. When buying a site and building a house, a person could not have anticipated a situation where they would need 1 ha. There is a strong case there that you could have a farmer and a person with 1 ha qualifying for the scheme when they make their local contribution, etc. Obviously, there will be many scenarios where there are two landowners. What I am talking about here will be a small enough number of people.

In many, virtually most, cases, there will be the farmer with the family dwelling on the farm and there will be another landholding. Or there might be a couple of dwellings. Invariably, there are multiple dwellings, multiple farms and there might be a landholder without a farm. My distinguished colleague the Acting Chair, Senator Murphy, will be very familiar with this in County Roscommon, which is no different from County Cavan or the rest of rural Ireland in the context of how this applies. Elected colleagues from around the country have mentioned this matter to me. It is not specifically an issue relating to either Cavan or Roscommon. It is a nationwide issue. This is about improving the lives of people who are left out and they do feel disenfranchised. They feel outside the loop a bit. They live in these rural areas, often in difficult enough circumstances. When people went canvassing recently for the local elections, they discovered this. They can have horrible roads in and the service providers, the nurses, doctors and so on, do not want to come in. There are issues with milk delivery systems. We should make the scheme as accessible as possible, within the law and within reason. Where there is one householder - a valid householder on a proper site - and an active farmer on the land, it should qualify.Obviously, in the vast majority of cases, there will be multiples of both.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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The Senator has made his case very well.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has sent her apologies that she could not be here today. I am here on her behalf to respond to the Commencement matter.

The local improvement scheme is a programme for improvement works on small private or non-public roads in rural areas that are not normally maintained by local authorities. The scheme is funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and is administered through the local authorities. The focus of the scheme is to support the continued improvement of non-public rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities but which represent a vital piece of infrastructure for rural residents.

Both the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and I understand just how important this scheme is for people in rural areas and farm families in particular. There is no other source of funding for these roads, which provide vital access to agricultural lands and rural homes. Importantly, as well as providing access to rural homes and farmlands, the scheme is also used to fund non-public roads, leading to important community amenities such as graveyards, beaches, piers, mountain access points and other tourist and heritage sites. This service is another important improvement to access and connectivity for rural areas at a local level.

As part of Our Rural Future, the Government has committed to ensuring that the local improvement scheme is funded into the future. The scheme was reintroduced by the Department of Rural and Community Development in 2017, and this followed a number of years with no dedicated funding. Between 2017 and 2023, almost €130 million was allocated to local authorities under the local improvement scheme. However, it remains the case that there is a strong demand for the scheme on the ground and, with this in mind, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, allocated a further €40 million to the scheme in April of this year. This allocation is in respect of works to be carried out over 2024 and 2025 and will allow local authorities to plan for the more efficient and effective delivery of road improvements at a local level.

A further important change was also made to the scheme this year. Again, this was aimed at ensuring the scheme maximises impact across the country. Up to 2023, the scheme required two herd numbers on the parcel serviced by a lane for repair. This requirement has now been changed such that only one herd number is required this year. This change was introduced following feedback from a number of local representatives, and it has been well received.

For a number of years, the Department has recommended that land parcels served by roads for repair be a minimum of 1 ha in size. This recommendation has been in place with a view to supporting the delivery of the best value for money with the funding available under the scheme. In keeping with the overall operation of the scheme, however, this has always been a recommendation and the final decision in relation to the selection of roads for repair remains with the local authority. While this element of the operation of the scheme remains a recommendation this year, I am aware that there have been a number of queries recently in this regard.

Officials in the Department of Rural and Community Development engage with the local authorities on an ongoing basis as to the delivery of the scheme. Given the queries arising in relation to eligible roads in this instance, I am aware that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has requested her officials to engage directly with local authorities on this matter and to review how this recommendation is currently being implemented. I can confirm that the funding of local improvement schemes remains a matter of priority for the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and her colleagues and that the Department will continue to work with local authorities to ensure the scheme continues to deliver real and tangible benefits for rural communities across Ireland.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response he has delivered on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. I welcome the fact that there is dialogue. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, tends to take a very commonsense approach to things. I am happy that her officials are engaged in dialogue with local authorities to keep the scheme under review. All I ask of the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, is to ensure my proposition today becomes part of that dialogue. I ask for it to be stress-tested and looked at by officials. I take the point that it is unfortunately just not possible to provide a laneway to one farmer’s place alone. Taking that as a given, I refer to a situation in which there is another house or a number of houses. In theory, as it stands, you could have three or four houses on a 0.5 acre site, as well as a farmer, but they would not qualify because they would not reach the qualifying criteria of having 1 ha. It does need to be reviewed. I hope the Minister of State can assure me that he can convey to the Minister what I am attempting to get across and, more importantly, that it is included in the process that is ongoing within the Department.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for acknowledging that there is ongoing dialogue with the local authorities. The scheme has been changed. It did require two herd numbers but that has now been moved to one. I take from what the Senator is saying to me that he believes the scheme should be changed from a requirement to have the land parcel size of 1 ha so that a number of land parcels can be aggregated together. If the Senator makes a proposal in that regard, writes it down and sends it, I will make sure that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, gets it and that she can consider that in her discussions with the local authority. The Senator can see from the reply I have read that this rule about having 1 ha is a recommendation to local authorities and the local authorities have the final decision-making power. There is therefore discretion for local authorities to consider how they spend the money that is allocated to them. There is a recommendation, and they should follow recommendations, but they do have the final decision-making power. The Senator might also engage with local authorities directly to remind them that is the official answer. It is a recommendation, but they have the final decision-making power. I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which I understand better now that he has explained it to me this morning. I will bring his recommendation back to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, if he can send a proposal to me.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking all four Commencement matters this morning. I thank Senators Gallagher, Malcolm Byrne, Pauline O’Reilly and Joe O’Reilly-----

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Two Senator O’Reillys.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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-----for contributing to the debate this morning. I also thank all the staff in the House, who are so helpful.