Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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620. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the total funding provided under the local improvement scheme, by local authority/local authority area, in each of the years 2014 to 2024, and to date in 2025, in tabular form. [40586/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) supports improving non-public rural roads and laneways not usually maintained by local authorities. Since its establishment in 2017, almost €170 million has been provided by the Government to local authorities for LIS.

While the Department provides funding for the scheme, it is administered by local authorities who hold responsibility for selecting and prioritising roads. This includes managing applications, prioritising eligible roads, scheduling works and maintaining waiting lists.

The attached tabular statement details the funding allocated to each local authority for the years 2017 - 2025. This funding includes allocations to counties with inhabited offshore islands including Cork, Donegal, Galway, Mayo and Sligo. These counties were provided with dedicated funding for repair/upgrade works on eligible island roads being cumulatively €776,000 in 2023 and €1.1 million in 2024/2025.

Further details regarding the Local Improvement Scheme can be found on my Department's website.

[Attachment to follow]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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621. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the total funding provided under the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme, by local authority/local authority area, in each of the years 2014 to 2024, and to date in 2025, in tabular form. [40587/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS) provides funding for the development and enhancement of outdoor recreational infrastructure such as walking trails, cycleways, water-based recreation sites and mountain trails. Since 2016, funding of over €129 million has been approved for over 1,700 projects nationwide.

The table attached provides detail on the amount of funding granted by local authority area under ORIS in each year from 2016 to 2024. This information relates to the funding approvals per calendar year rather than each annual iteration of the scheme. For example, projects under measures 1, 2 and 3 of the ORIS 2023 scheme were formally announced at the start of 2024 and are included under the 2024 column.

No funding has been awarded in 2025 as of yet. The assessment process for the ORIS 2024/2025 scheme is currently ongoing and successful projects will be announced later this year.

[Attachment to follow]