O’Donovan raises future of Local Improvement Scheme’s in the Dáil

Added February 2nd, 2013

Fine Gael TD for Limerick Patrick O’Donovan again raised the issue of the continuation of Local Improvement Schemes with Transport Minister Leo Varadkar in Dáil Éireann. Local Improvement Schemes are Government funded programmes for the maintenance and restructuring of private roadways that are used both for agricultural and residential purposes in rural areas, and are roads that are not maintained on an ongoing basis by County Council’s.

Patrick O’Donovan has been lobbying the Minister on the need to keep the scheme open and to maintain the list of applicants that was in place before last years budget. In response to a question raised by Patrick O’Donovan last week,. Leo Varadkar said that he was now allowing Local Authorities to use up to 7% of their annual discretionary allocation for roads on Local Improvement Schemes, as a first step to getting the schemes fully reinstated.

Patrick O’Donovan said that he would continue to press the Minister on this issue. “Since the original announcement was made to discontinue the scheme I have personally lobbied the Minister on this with the result that last year he agreed that he would keep the scheme live maintaining the list for a possible reopening when funds might be available, this year he is allowing Councils to spend some of their discretionary money on them, and obviously in the near future as matters improve I would be hoping to see separate ring fenced allocations made for Local Improvement Schemes made by the Department.

I know that many of the people on the list and some of the local representatives in the area will be anxious to see that this issue is kept to the fore on the Minister’s agenda, and I intend to keep lobbying on this matter as it is a vital part of rural infrastructure in counties like Limerick.”