Cavan/Monaghan Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith has welcomed the allocation of €371,140 to Cavan County Council and €351,880 to Monaghan County Council for the Local Improvement Scheme for 2022.

“This funding from the Department of Rural and Community Development is welcome but a far greater level of funding is needed for this scheme to tackle the backlog in applications.  Unfortunately the government in 2012 abolished the specific funding stream for the Local Improvement Scheme from the Department of Transport.  In the meantime serious delays have occurred in having these necessary improvement works carried out.

Recently I renewed my appeal through Parliamentary Questions to the Minister for Transport for his Department to provide funding for these necessary road improvement works.

I believe that a further allocation needs to be made to local authorities this year for this scheme as happened in July 2021 when an additional allocation of €830,135 was made to Cavan County Council following the initial allocation of €289,254.  At that time the Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath TD had allocated further additional funding to Departments for specific schemes including the Local Improvement Scheme”, stated Brendan Smith TD.

5/04/2022