Vol. 546 No. 3
274 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he is investigating the spending by Donegal County Council of £20 million of their four year £22 million housing allocation in one town, and largely with one family, without going through the normal tendering process. [31740/01]
I understand that Donegal County Council has purchased a number of housing schemes from private developers under their four year multi-annual local authority housing programme. Local authorities are encouraged by my Department to acquire houses on a turnkey basis where they serve to increase output quickly under the programme as well as offering reasonable value for money and have been advised in guidelines that, where they are considering the acquis ition of turnkey developments, they should advertise in the local and national newspapers for suitable proposals.
The turnkey developments acquired by Donegal County Council, with the approval of my Department, complied with the above and public procurement requirements generally. Capital expenditure by Donegal County Council on local authority housing construction/acquisition is estimated at £27.7 million for the current year, of which, some £9.4 million relates to housing projects in Letterkenny where there is the largest housing need in the county.
