The Minister for Rural and Community Development has defended the allocation given to Kerry road under the Local Improvement Scheme.
The scheme supports the improvement works of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities.
Some Kerry councillors claimed the waiting list for the LIS is taking too long.
They alleged some people who made applications will be dead before their road works are completed.
Minister Heather Humphreys says since 2017 the department has allocated almost €114 million to the Local Improvement Scheme.
She says from 2017 to 2022 a total of €6.2 million was allocated to Kerry for works on 173 roads, under this scheme.
The minister says it’s the fifth highest allocation nationally.
The Fine Gael minister launched the 2023 scheme earlier this month, she says the basic funding has been increased to €12 million, almost €800,000 of this is allocated to Kerry.
Minister Humphreys says she’ll continue to monitor the expenditure patterns in her department, if any savings emerge, she’ll consider allocating additional funding to the scheme this year.
She says she is continuing to engage with the Minister for Transport regarding that department contributing to a jointly funded Local Improvement Scheme (LIS).
The minister was answering a question in the Dáil from Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin.
Deputy Griffin asked the minister to consider a reform of the funding model for the LIS, in view of the unreasonably long waiting list in Kerry, despite the significant funding provided to the county in recent years.
