Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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357. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the extent to which she expects to be in a position to support local improvement schemes initiated by local authorities in 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9003/22]

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.

I launched the 2021 Scheme with an initial budget of €10.5 million. I was very pleased to source additional funding during the year and allocated a further round of funding to bring the total for 2021 to €21 million.

I was also 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 for this year.

I will be launching this year's scheme in the coming weeks at which point individual county allocations will be made known.