The Department of Rural and Community Development says Kerry’s share of a road improvement fund was calculated based on the council’s roadworks schedule for the remainder of the year.
Last month, Minister Heather Humphreys announced additional funding in the 2021 Local Improvement Scheme, under which Kerry received extra funding of almost €469,000. Her department says funding under this scheme has to be used before year end.
Minister Humphreys announced additional funding of €10.5 million, which brought the scheme funding to €21 million. Fianna Fáil councillor John Francis Flynn compared the allocations given to Kerry and the Cavan-Monaghan constituency, the area which Minister Humphreys represents.
He says that Cavan and Monaghan local authorities received €2.45 million and Kerry received just under €1.2 million in total; this is despite Kerry having nearly 800 roads in the scheme, and, as Councillor Flynn claims, Cavan-Monaghan having around 500 across both counties. The department told Radio Kerry the amount varied by local authority, depending on the work each council felt it could have completed before year end.
It says each local authority was asked how many additional roads they could repair, were additional funding to become available. The department says Cavan and Monaghan councils indicated they needed €2.7 million extra, of which they received over 70%, while Kerry County Council indicated it needed just over €700,000.
In the second round, the county received €469,000 and its first allocation of €690,000 was the fifth highest in the country.
