asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the amount of grants withheld from the Tirconaill County Council, other than grants for the relief of distress and unemployment, and if he will give the reasons for withholding these grants.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - TIRCONAILL CO. COUNCIL GRANTS.
The claim of the Tirconaill County Council in respect of grants formerly withheld by the British Government was settled finally in September, 1922, the total payment amounting to £61,690. This amount did not include Estate Duty Grant for 1921-2, and half of the Agricultural Grant for the same year, as these monies were retained in the Guarantee Fund in connection with charges under the Land Acts. Recently, however, a sum of £462,415 was released from the Guarantee Fund representing the half Agricultural Grant for 1921-2, above referred to (£299,505 approximately), and a portion (£162,910 approximately) of the first half of the Agricultural Grant for the current financial year, 1923-4. The distribution of this sum of £462,415, Agricultural Grant, resulted in a net payment to the Tirconaill County Council of £16,163 7s. 11d.
Of the total amount of Estate Duty Grant for 1922-3 a sum of £75,417 approximately, had to be retained in the Guarantee Fund in connection with charges under the Land Acts. The share of the Tirconaill County Council in the balance which was distributed, was £1,378 17s. 5d.
Arising out of the Minister's reply, I wish to say that I am afraid I did not gather the total of the amount due. I asked the question with that view. Would I be right in saying my figures would be £59,000 for the last three years?
There is nothing due. Everything that was due has been paid.
Might I ask the meaning of the word "grant?" Is it a grant or a free gift or really a return from taxation to the local authorities?
It is an Exchequer Grant, but it has to pass through the Guarantee Fund, and if for any reason in the matter of delay or failure to pay the Land Commission annuities, the Guarantee Fund has to be drawn on, the County Council has no claim to the full grant.
May I ask the Minister for Finance how he expects the County Council to pay this sum of money which is outstanding year by year and still practise economy?
There is no sum of money outstanding, as I have told the Deputy.
May I further ask the Minister for a statement on this point of the question of annuities? Do I understand that every county in Ireland is responsible for every other county, and that if one county is behind in its responsibility in the payment of its annuities another county that is not behind will suffer? Do I understand that we in Tirconaill will suffer loss because of other counties? Deputy Heffernan, speaking here lately, said that the men who suffered loss in the matter of the troubles in Tipperary Creameries two years ago would not now pay their annuities. Is Tirconaill to suffer for that?
Not in the long run. But, in the first place, the Guarantee Fund is for the whole country, and it cannot be depleted, because it must be able to meet the draw upon it. If the draw enables further sums to be paid out than were paid out of it originally, the counties that have not caused the draw will get payment. Those that have will not. The ultimate deduction from the total fund will be in proportion to the default of the annuities in a particular county.
Do I understand the Minister to say in his first answer that the only amount paid to the Tirconaill County Council was that paid in September, 1922? Would there not be money due to them since then—is there not a yearly grant?
I will have to ask the Deputy to read my answer when he sees it in print.
I cannot read it when I have not got a copy of it.
You will eventually.
I asked this through the Local Government Department first and the Local Government Department passed——
The Deputy can only ask a supplementary question in relation to the question on the Order Paper.