Road Network Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Mike Kennelly (FG), Labour Panel The recent bad weather across the country has taken its toll on all our road networks. The roads on the local improvement scheme, LIS, are now mud tracks. It is with a deep sense of frustration and sadness that I once again highlight the crisis facing many families across rural Kerry under the LIS. Kerry County Council has shown time and again it has the capacity and commitment to deliver under the scheme. It is ready and able to utilise up to €5 million per annum, yet the allocation provided remains at approximately €2.2. million - less than half of what is needed and of what can be effectively spent. Behind those figures lies a stark human reality. When the scheme opened, over 800 roads applied and 706 qualified. On average, a population of about 10,000 people live on those roads. There are over 550 applicants still on the LIS waiting list in Kerry. At the current pace, 20 to 30 roads are completed each year, so many are facing a weight of up to 20 years. That is not a delay; it is a lifetime. I recently spoke to an elderly couple. I spoke to the mom of the house. She is 78 and her husband is 83. They have been on the list since the scheme opened. The sad reality of their situation is they may not live to see their road improved. After years of waiting patiently, imagine knowing the road outside your home, the road you depend on every day, may not be fixed in your lifetime. They are No. 320 on the list. They will not see that road in their lifetime. That is the sad news I have to bring on this occasion. This is my third time speaking on this. They are not alone. These roads are not luxuries; they are basic access routes. Some ambulances are struggling to travel them. Emergency services are being delayed. Elderly people are left cut off because transport providers will not bring them to day care services due to the condition of their roads. People are being isolated in their own homes, not by distance, but by neglect. This is one of the most serious and overlooked road issues we face in Kerry today. What makes it all the more difficult to accept is that, in other counties, funding is not being fully drawn down. In some cases, allocations are being returned to the Department. At the same time in Kerry, we have shovel-ready roads, willing applicants and a council ready to deliver. This cannot continue. If funding is not being used elsewhere, it must be redirected to where the need is greatest – that is clearly in Kerry. Every euro left idle in one county is a year added to the waiting list for the families I mentioned. Kerry also has one of the highest number of private roads in the country requiring improvement. That reality must be recognised at a national level, which I think it is not. The scheme needs to be examined through that lens and Kerry must be prioritised accordingly. This is not just about infrastructure. It is about fairness, safety and the basic dignity of all our people. We cannot continue to ask people to wait decades for something as fundamental as access to their own homes and we cannot accept a situation where emergency services are put at risk or elderly people are effectively cut off from the supports they depend on. I call on the Minister of State not just to review the scheme, but to act decisively, to increase funding for Kerry in 2026, to redirect unused allocations from other counties and to ensure this growing frustration is finally addressed. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-22