FYI: The Local Improvement Scheme,( LIS )is a grant aided scheme, funded from central governemnt to carry out road works on non-public roads, roads which serve farmlands, houses, bogs, small bridges. The works must benefit two or more parcels of land owned or occupied by two different persons or in the opinion of the County Council be used by the public.

The works should not be ordinary maintenance of a kind which the applicants could reasonably be expected to do themselves.  The applicants must pay a local contribution of 10%-15% of the estimated cost of the project and this must be paid before the commencement of the work.

Applications were received and processed on an ongoing basis, and placed on a priority list until the whole scheme was abolished!!!!!.

Motion: At the March meeting of Leitrim County Council, I will ask for the support of members in calling on the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar TD to reverse his budget decision which abolished funding of Local Improvement Schemes (L.I.S Schemes) for rural roads. Many families throughout the county are being affected by this unfair decision.

Cllr Guckian outlined to members that despite the very challenging economic times the previous Fianna Fáil Government retained funding for the LIS so that people could at least see a chance of getting their road being maintained. This is no longer the case, since the whole scheme was abolished by the current Government.

Cllr Guckian advised that it was her understanding that this is the 2nd time that a Fine Gael /labour government had just closed this scheme isolating rural people.

It is unacceptable that rural residents, who pay the same car tax as others, have now been advised that there is no budget to maintain the non-public roads in their areas.

Cllr Guckian called for the support of all the members and all rural organisations in lobbying the Minister to reverse his decision.

Cllr Guckian referred to Minister Varadkars letter, in the Councils correspondence and expressed her anger at the Ministers suggestion that the local authority could offer funding from their own resources, she outlined that this was an “non solution” considering the severe cuts the Minister and his Government had made to the Councils own funding and his suggestion shows a lack of understanding of the severity and how rural counties are financed.

Cllr Guckian, in appealing to members for support, highlighted that all these drastic alterations in the Governments policies that effect rural living would be detrimental to our rural culture and way of life, forcing a change in our culture and heritage.

The Director of Services advised that there were 193 LIS schemes in the County that had hoped to be funded.

Cllr Guckian welcomed the commitment from the Government party members to discuss this matter again with the Minister with a view to re-instating some level of funding. Her motion was passed and the request will be forwarded to the Minister to reverse his decision.

Copy of Questions and reply from the Director, as per the agenda.

Question No. 29

At the April meeting of Leitrim County Council I will ask the Director of Services, Infrastructure how many LIS (Local Improvement Scheme) applicants from Leitrim have been left waiting following the abolition of the Scheme by the Fine Gael/ Labour Government in Budget 2012 and what was the proposed details and estimated cost of same.

REPLY: There were 193 applications for Local Improvement Schemes when the overall scheme was suspended. Leitrim County Council only prepares detailed cost estimates for individual schemes when they are about to start and as a result cannot accurately estimate the total cost of the 193 applications on hands. The average cost of the schemes for the last three years was EUR24,000.

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