Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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959. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will make an allocation to local authorities to fund works under the local improvement scheme and thereby remove their discretion to divert such funding to other areas. [19516/14]

Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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960. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will make an allocation to local authorities specifically to fund works under the local improvement scheme and thereby remove their discretion to divert any such funding to other areas. [19517/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 959 and 960 together.

The Local Improvement Scheme provides funding for roads and laneways that Councils have not taken in charge.  However, the maintenance and improvement of these is, in the first instance, a matter for the relevant landowner. There is no separate allocation for the Local Improvement Scheme.  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 Clare County Council was allocated a Discretionary Grant of €3,081,100. This means that Clare County Council can allocate up to €462,165 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.

Some local authorities want the LIS. Others prefer to put the money into public roads. I think this decision is best made locally by the councillors themselves.