Over €790,000 (€797,367) in funding has been allocated to Kerry under the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS).
It’s part of an €12.5 million package which will be used to improve hundreds of rural roads and laneways across the country.
This LIS funding will be used for repairs and improvement works on private, rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities.
It was announced by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys.
Minister Humphreys says local connectivity is vital for rural communities and this investment will benefit families in every county.
She says the LIS is about making people’s lives easier by ensuring there’s good access to homes, farms and local amenities.
Since the scheme was introduced in 2017, over 3,700 roads have been funded for repair works nationally.
The funding allocation has been welcomed by Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin who says he'll continue to lobby for further furnding to address the long LIS waiting list in Kerry, while Minister for Education and Kerry Fianna Fáil TD Norma Foley says this funding will provide vital upgrade works and improvements to access routes for rural homes and farms as well as our world class outdoor amenities such as the lakes, rivers, mountains and beaches across Kerry.
Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae also welcomes the funding, but says it clearly won’t be enough to deal with the extensive list of roads in Kerry that still remain to be done and he'll continue to work to get more funding allocated.
Fellow Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae says while he welcomes the funding, he's also calling on the government to increase the amount allocated to Kerry, as people will be waiting decades for roads to be fixed at the current rate.
