OVER 200 roads in the county are awaiting funding on the local improvement scheme (LIS).
In April, Clare County Council were allocated €582,690 under the LIS which provides funding to help local authorities carry out improvement works on private and non-publicly maintained roads.
Acting senior executive engineer in the Killaloe Municipal District, Derek Troy updated elected representatives that 20 of the 200 applications “awaiting funding” were in East Clare. The funding allocation from the Department of Rural and Community Development is anticipated to “facilitate works on fourteen roads throughout the county, two of which are located in the Killaloe MD,” he stated.
Cllr Pat Burke (FG) who requested the information acknowledged, “it would be great to quadruple the funding” in order to try clear the backlog. “It’s slow progress, that is nobody’s fault here, it would be good to get two more roads done under the LIS”. The former Leas Cathaoirleach of the Council added, “we will keep battling away with Oireachtas members for extra funding”.
When September comes, a secondary list should be ready “so that if money came at the eleventh hour that you would have it,” Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) suggested. “There is a secondary back up list to confirm that we can work back off,” the engineer responded.
An opportunity to open up the scheme and invite new applications is worth considering, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) maintained. “The challenge is there is 180 in North-West Clare and we’re competing completely against that”.
This view was backed by Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) who said the Killaloe MD need to be ready. “From 2008 to 2018, the scheme went off the scene because of the downturn,” he recalled. He felt that the Killaloe MD could consider assessing interest in its own locality rather than gauging the view of the entire county.
