Long list in Leitrim for Community Involvement Schemes

Cllr Caillian Ellis asked for an update on Community Involvement Schemes (CIS) and Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) applications at the latest Ballinamore municipal district meeting held this week.
A report by the Roads office said that Leitrim County Council received €307,350 for CIS schemes this year and €107,573 is destined for Ballinamore for three schemes; the same as last year.
There are around 80 schemes on the list currently in Ballinamore and Carrick-on-Shannon.
It said that there 163 were LIS schemes on the waiting list currently in Leitrim and 23 are complete.
No allocation has been received yet for LIS schemes.
Cllr Ellis was told that the cost of materials has gone up 18% since last year which is causing delays.
Darragh O'Boyle, district engineer, said the council “cut our cloth to suit our measure” in terms of ensuring that schemes are completed with the funding available.
He added, “We really need to target public roads that are cul de sacs because if they are through-roads, there is an opportunity to put them on the Roadworks Programme and they will get more traction under that grant system rather than the CIS system because we're only doing two or three a year and it's a big list.”
He explained that of the 80 schemes on the list, all through-roads were removed and now it stands at around 20.
Cllr Paddy O'Rourke said that with communities willing to put up 10% of the cost of these schemes, “it's a pity we don't have more matching funding from the department.”
Mr O'Boyle said that many of those on the list are forestry companies, however the list is split evenly between communities and forestry.
“Much of the forestry has been dealt with over the last four years anyway,” he said.
Cllr O'Rourke said that the council should “be making the case to the department that we have this long list.”
“There's no other county in Ireland that has the same dependency on this type of road to provide transport to and from people's homes because of the nature of land holdings being smaller.
“It's unique to this county and we should be making a stronger case to the department,” he stated.
He suggested the council contact the department to “see if we can squeeze anymore out of them.”
Cllr Brendan Barry supported this suggestion.