92. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht if there are plans to increase local improvement scheme, LIS, funding in Kerry; the reasons the funding was cut between 2025 and 2026; if he will ensure that funding is increased in budget 2027; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38220/26]

Sentiment score: 0.26

I want to ask the Minister about the LIS funding scheme, in particular relating to County Kerry. A significant number of roads are on the list. While I appreciate Kerry County Council is doing the best it can, it is only able to address a limited number per year.

Sentiment score: 0.36

I thank the Minister. The difficulty and the reason Kerry should be treated as more of an exception than other counties, such as the midland counties, is that there are 580 roads in the scheme for the county. I appreciate 37 were done last year but if we do the maths on that, we are talking the best part of 20 years. A lot of the people who are contacting me from places like Ballinglanna near Causeway, Tiershanaghan, Ballyheigue, Kilgulbin, Ardfert, Ballyconry near Ballyduff and Dromid in south Kerry will be drawing their pension, if they are lucky, by the time these roads are addressed. I appreciate there has been funding since 2017 but the problem with that is the list was closed in 2018 because there were so many roads in Kerry on it and it has not been opened for the past eight years. That is the scale of the problem we are dealing with in the county.

Sentiment score: 0.12

I thank the Minister for the reply. I will give some background and context on this. I am glad he mentioned local and regional roads because there were many announcements from certain Deputies in County Kerry that there was increased roads funding for the county but the local and regional roads funding was actually slashed by €2 million. Villages like Ballyduff, Fenit, Abbeydorney and Glenbeigh have no wastewater infrastructure. There is basically an Imhoff tank, or a hole in the ground, where the sewage is going into and they cannot develop in those areas. Inflation has surged costs for the materials, labour and fuel, in addition to all of the heavy rainfall from climate change, which is digging into roads and making the roads that have been repaired in need of patching. I am talking about local and regional roads, such as Knocknacaska outside Kilflynn, where there has been a solar farm proposed. Despite all the great work it is doing, the council is playing catch-up. It is galling for people in Kerry to look at the nearly €500 million spent on MetroLink without a sod being turned and they cannot get to school, work or their businesses without going over potholed roads.

Sentiment score: 0.03