Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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60. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the local improvement scheme allocation for 2022; the number of outstanding local improvement scheme roads by local authority; the value of outstanding roads awaiting improvement; the amount initially sought by Kerry County Council in respect of 2021; the amount that was sought when the local authority was called on to apply for the supplementary fund of €10.5 million; the amounts that were provided in both instances; if all the funding allocated from both tranches of funding that is, €21 million in total was fully drawn down by local authorities; if not, the amount that was not drawn down; the local authorities that did not drawn down same; the amount sought by Kerry County Council for 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8654/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As part of 'Our Rural Future',the Government is committed to ensuring that the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) is funded into the future. This reflects the important contribution which the scheme makes to connectivity in rural Ireland. The LIS supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities.

The Local Improvement Scheme was reintroduced in 2017 following a number of years with no dedicated funding.  Since then my Department has allocated €80 Million towards improvement works on over 3,000 non-public roads and lanes. These works have benefitted over 13,300 landowners and residents in these rural areas.

I launched the 2021 Scheme with an initial budget of €10.5 million. This funding was allocated based on the geographical area of each county and Kerry County Council was allocated €689,930.

I was very pleased to source additional funding during the year and I allocated a second tranche of funding totalling €10.5 million to bring the total funding nationally under the scheme for 2021 to €21 million. This additional funding was allocated based on the capacity of each Local Authority to deliver improvement works by year-end. Kerry County Council submitted a request for funding of €706,294 under this second tranche  Applications for the additional funding across the country exceeded the available amount. As a result, the funding was allocated on a pro-rata basis with all counties receiving just over 70% of their requested amount. Kerry County Council was awarded €497,169 under this second tranche bringing the total allocation for 2021 in Kerry to €1,187,099.

Kerry County Council drew down €1,145,874 in 2021. A total of €20.82 million was drawn down in 2021 across all Local Authority areas which represents over 99% of the allocated amount. This resulted in 660 projects being completed in 2021 benefiting in excess of 3,000 landowners and residents in rural areas.

I was pleased, as part of Budget 2022, to announce an increase in the base funding for LIS from €10.5 million in 2021 to €11 million this year. I will be launching this year's scheme in the coming weeks at which point the allocation for County Kerry and elsewhere will be made known. 

While my Department has received an indication of the level of demand in each county, it does not have consistent and reliable data regarding the number of roads awaiting improvement works.  My officials are currently reviewing the process for requesting and collating such data. This is with a view to determining whether a more consistent, timely  and rigorous approach to data collection might be employed across the local authority system to underpin the Scheme and inform allocations to  each county.