Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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788. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will consider a review of the local improvement scheme; if he will consider a ring fenced allocation of funding to local authorities who have very little of their own funding and depend heavily on grant funding from his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7661/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Local Improvement Scheme has been reviewed and improved in 2014.

This Scheme provides funding for road and laneways that councils have not taken in charge.  However, the maintenance and improvement of these roads is, in the first instance, a matter for the relevant landowner. As indicated to all local authorities on 24 January 2014, the Local Improvement Scheme was reinstated but with no separate allocation for this grant category.  Instead, local authorities may use up to 15% (up from 7% in 2013) of their initial Discretionary Grant towards local improvement schemes should they wish to do so.  The local contribution for these schemes remains at 20% of the total cost of the project and the same eligibility rules apply for these schemes.

Details of the 2014 regional and local roads grants were communicated to local authorities on 24 January and I note that Sligo County Council was allocated a Discretionary Grant of €1,863,650. This means that Sligo County Council can allocate up to €279,547 of this grant heading to the local improvement scheme if it so wishes. Furthermore, it is open to local authorities to supplement the percentage of their Discretionary Grant that they can use for the local improvement schemes with their own resources.