Danny Healy-Rae Demands Fair Funding for Kerry Roads

Thank you very much, Ciancola, Tanaiste. I'm glad to get the opportunity today to raise with you and to ask you for increased funding to deal with local improvement scheme applications in Kerry next year. It's only just around the corner. 678 schemes are on the list and were applied for in 2018, and over 90 of these are on a list since 2007, which were included in the 2018 scheme. So these are public roads that were never taken in charge by the local authority. They're not private roads. Many of these roads have 20 or more homes on them, and many have nine or more farmers using these roads on a daily basis to access their home. We did get an increased allocation last year of €480,000 or so, which brought us up to €1,187,099. We got 19 roads done for last year, to a high standard by Kerry County Council, who do a very good job. But I have to say there has been no element of funding for emergency hardship schemes, which was always made available through local improvement allocations. The people who live on these roads pay all their taxes, road tax, property tax, pay and income tax, they pay their way, and they have no public transport. Farmers pay water charges, they have to pay more to in-city their cars because of damage and more wear and tear by bad roads. All I ask on behalf of the people of Kerry is fair play. Other smaller counties with less amount of applications are getting more funding to do their roads. I won't name them. I don't want to put any other county down to put Kerry up, but I do ask for fairness for the people of Kerry. I'm asking the government to be fair to people in these rural areas. People living in these roads are entitled to a good road to their door, the very same as the people in Dublin 4. I say again, these roads are not private, they are public. These people have paid their, and you see, there are people, carers and nurses and doctors trying to use these roads to get into people that are sick and on a daily basis, maybe several times a day, to try to keep people living at home. And, you see, this is a very serious matter, they have no other option only to use these roads. They want to stay living in these places as long as they can, but we must do our bit to help them. And back over the years, the department made 80% of the funding available, and they will pay their contribution. They have never refused to do this. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Deputy. Teesh, or Tarnashter? The Local Improvement Scheme is a very important transport scheme. It provides for the improvement of roads all over the country, roads that are not formally taken in charge by the local authorities, but were they in urban areas, they probably would be, because they access multiple households and, in some cases, multiple farms and multiple businesses. $10.5 million was provided for the scheme in 2021, which was double the allocation that you would have seen, for example, ten years ago. An extra $10.5 million was granted during the year as well. Kerry County Council got an increase, based on what the Council applied for when invited. I cannot give you any commitments in relation to next year, but I will talk to Minister Humphries about this. The other Deputy Healy Ray, Deputy Griffin and Minister Foley are all added in on this, so they would all like to see additional funding for LIS in Kerry and, indeed, across the country through the course of 2022. We can certainly undertake to speak to Minister Humphries and Minister McGrath, because we will see unspent capital funding by a lot of government departments this year, and we will probably see that next year as well. I think LIS is a very good scheme that you can divert money into during the course of the year. If, for some reason, a department cannot spend its capital allocation, because a big project is delayed or there is some issue like that, LIS is actually the perfect scheme that you can divert money to during the course of the year, so that allocations do not go unspent. That is probably what I think will happen next year. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I just want to make aware that in the past we did 111 roads on two consecutive years, so Kerry County Council has the capacity to deal with any funding that he has left over, and all the deputies from Kerry will work together. I have raised this matter several times myself, but what I say to Tarniste, if we only get 19 roads done every year, it will take us 35 or 36 years to exhaust the list of 678 roads that are left in the list. And there are places like Kilkomen, Guinea-Uguilis, Skatidlin, Korra, Korans, Fanfor, Foeris. All these places, there are multiple roads, and all down around South Kerry, multiple roads to be dealt with. And these people need fair play, and they are paying everything that they are asked to pay for. I named out all the taxes that they are paying, and they are complying. And they need to get assistance, and they need to get fair pay, because other urban areas have all different modes of transport and very fine roads. But these people are left behind actually since 2007. There are 90 of these, and if we have to wait 28 years, I won't be around, Deputy Griffin might, but many of us that are inside here won't be there if it is going to take that long. All I am asking for is fair play. Other counties are doing better, and we have to come up the line as well. Thank you very much, Deputy. I thought for a minute there you were going to name all those 638 roads. Thanks very much. Well, I actually know of the very motion. I see. Thanks very much, Deputy. There was a prolonged period during which the local improvement scheme was suspended during the recession. Things have changed, and the budget last year was 10 million, and an additional 10 million, probably the highest budget for the LIS in a long, long number of years. So I am not quite sure why Kerry did not get more roads done. I do not know the intricacies of the details of that. But it is important that local authorities make submissions for additional money, and as I indicated there will be a budget for the local improvement scheme next year. It is important that the work gets started in the spring or summer, and it is not left until the end of the year when sometimes it is too late. As I indicated earlier as well, what I would envisage us doing through the course of 2022 is that if we see that there are underspends in particular departments, and those departments are not able to proceed with certain capital works, that this is the ideal scheme among others. But it is the ideal scheme among others that you can put additional money into through the course of the year. I would encourage local authorities to get ready for that, and to have projects ready to bid for additional funding should it become available. Thank you, Thomas. I want to thank Michael Ring for reactivating the scheme. Thank you very much.