Brian Stanley urges review of Local Improvement Scheme funding

The question put to the Minister here is in relation to the local improvement scheme, a very important scheme in relation to local roads and particularly the fact that the local community makes a contribution of between 10 and 15%. The level of funding this year in the case of Leash, it actually dropped slightly, it dropped by 1,000 euros, I was hoping it would be a bit more and I would ask that the funding for this year be reviewed again. Thank you. Thanks Deputy, just acknowledge your ongoing interest in this area. The local improvement scheme, or LIS, provides for the upgrading of non-public rural roads and laneways typically that are not maintained by the local authorities. It was reintroduced in 2017. Since 2017, funding of over 200 million euro has been allocated to local authorities around the country. Over 5,500 roads have been improved. In February this year, I was pleased to announce with Minister Buttermore to launch the 2026 scheme. We confirmed base funding for 2026 of 17.5 million, which represents an increase on the initial base funding made available in 2025. Leash County Council has received a 2026 allocation of almost 470,000 euro. The total allocated to Leash since 2017 is over 6.6 million euro. My officials are engaging with local authorities. Local authorities have submitted their priority road lists for 2026. They have now received approval to proceed with their works. I have directed that the scheme spend be monitored closely to ensure that funding is fully utilised, not returned to the department, and that as many road improvements as possible are completed under the scheme this year. I'm also, parallel to that process, monitoring departmental spending within my own department in the coming months to identify any potential savings that we have within the department that can be reallocated to the LIS programme. I'm very aware of the importance of the scheme to councils, to rural communities. It is a priority for both Minister Buttermore and I. We continue to monitor expenditure within the department. But I'd also say we are asking local authorities to consider their level of expenditure on each road. There are considerable disparities between the expenditure on the scheme from local authority to local authority. That's something that we're zeroing in on to ensure that there's a common spend around the country. And I think in that way, Deputy Stanley, we will also achieve more roads being completed across the country. Thanks Minister for your reply. I think with Leash you'll find that not too much money comes back to you. It tends to get used. I agree with you about using it well. It's a 10% contribution where it's five residents or less, or landowners. 15% where it's six plus. What I would say to you is that the funding for Leash is actually, it's £469,000 as you said. This is £470,000 last year. And nine schemes are approved locally for this year. But it's 80 plus on the waiting list. And some of those are more urgent than others. And I mean, you will appreciate that if you're any of his local councillors locally, you'll appreciate that as constituency TD. I would just highlight here, just in relation to the Slea Bloom area, the Western area, and you were in Mountrad recently, and you saw how good money, you saw how money was spent very, very well in the wonderful Café Don 8 and the River Walk, et cetera, in Mountrad. But what I would say to you is this, is that the topography, and there's a lot of those roads are over peat and over bad land. And you know, the county council there, you know, at this rate, it would take another nearly 10 years to complete the scheme. That's it to close the scheme. But you know, there will more come on next year. So it's a matter of trying to keep ahead with it. It does require more funding. Thanks Deputy Stanley. Minister, please. No, absolutely, Deputy Stanley. And Leish completed 18 roads in 2025. And as I said, there's 81 outstanding on the list that we have. And we had a really, really successful visit to Leish with you and Deputy Fleming, Deputy Ayrton weeks back. And I saw myself the fantastic work that Leish County Council are doing. I want to pay tribute to that work. But in terms of LIS, I literally could throw the entire budget of the department at LIS and still have waiting lists. And we also have other departments have responsibilities in terms of roads funding and regional roads funding and public roads funding in rural areas. So it can't just be this department that takes on that burden. But we are working closely with other departments in relation to that. We will be, and we are at the point now looking at our expenditure as we are nearly six months through the year. Again, though, I would reiterate the necessity for every local authority to complete and to spend the amount of money that is allocated to them in a given year. If I'm getting money returned from local authorities, it makes my job within the department of putting extra resources into this program even more difficult. So in your reply, you know, some local authorities will not use it. What I would ask you to do is that if there's indications, you know, as we move on through the year, that some local authorities are not going to use it, that to, and I understand there is an endless pot of funding there, and it's not down to the Department of Community and Rural Affairs solely, but in relation to this scheme it is, and I would just ask that where there is a surplus of funding or where there's unused funding, that the scheme, the funding be reviewed. And certainly in LIS, and which in relation to, you know, spending it well, getting a good return for it, the one thing the county council is very good at is making sure that the local contribution is made from the local residents and landowners. That's very, very important that that happens, but we are in a standstill situation. The cost of road works has gone up 15%. You know, the contractors, it's 15% extra this year, and it's between 10 and, I'm given an average between 10 and 20% extra, so it's not even a standstill situation. There will only be about 80% of the work that was done last year with the level of funding we have this year, which is, you know, which is 1,000 less, 169,000. That's the point of making the error. You know, we're very aware, the Department, Deputy, of the increase in costs, particularly over the last three months, since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, and that directly impacts on road costs in particular. So that's why we will be flexible in the Department in terms of, if I can see underspends, LIS will be a priority. Equally, we are engaging through our capital delivery teams with local authorities who are serial offenders in terms of sending money back. We've tried to get notification and approval of schemes out to councils earlier this year so that they can get that work underway now in the summer, so-called summer period, and get most of that work done. But I would encourage every Deputy, and as I look around, we're nearly all rural Deputies, to engage with your local authority management around LIS to ensure that they are spending the allocation that they're getting. Because as I said, it's not good for local authorities to be sending back money. I want money spent, particularly capital money, but I would encourage an engagement at local management level around LIS budgets in particular.