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

The scheme was reintroduced in 2017 following a number of years with no dedicated funding. From 2017 to 2021, my Department allocated €80 million towards improvement works on over 3,000 non-public roads and lanes benefiting over 13,300 landowners and residents in these rural areas.

I launched the 2021 scheme with an initial budget of €10.5 million. Additional funding was sourced last year from savings within my Department's vote, effectively doubling investment in LIS to bring the total investment last year to €21 million.

I was pleased, as part of Budget 2022, to announce an increase in the base funding for LIS from €10.5 million to €11 million this year. I am continuing to closely monitor expenditure patterns this year. Should savings emerge, I will give consideration to again allocating additional funding to the scheme.

The prioritisation and selection of eligible LIS roads is a matter for each relevant local authority within broad parameters set down by my Department. Each year following the launch of the Scheme and the announcement of individual county allocations, each local authority submits a priority list of roads, as well as a reserve list to my Department before works commence locally.

660 LIS roads were delivered under the 2021 scheme from the total allocation of €21 million. Details are set out in the following table. In addition, some 309 LIS roads have been submitted by local authorities to date in respect of the 2022 Scheme . These roads these have been approved and works are ongoing.