asked the Minister for Finance if he will state how many schemes are at present in operation in Clare under the following heads:—(1) urban employment schemes; (2) rural employment schemes; (3) minor employment schemes; (4) rural improvement schemes; further, if proposals have been submitted to his Department in respect of all these schemes, whether he will state how many have been reported on favourably; and when his Department proposes initiating work on any or all of the schemes submitted.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Clare Works Schemes.
The answer to the first part of the question is: urban employment schemes—none; rural employment schemes—none; minor employment schemes—none; rural improvements schemes—five.
I would point out to the Deputy that in the normal course employment schemes are sanctioned for execution only during the winter months, but that rural improvements schemes are sanctioned at any time of the year on lodgment by the beneficiaries of their appropriate contribution towards the cost.
As regards the second part of the question, proposals for urban and rural employment schemes are put forward by the urban and county councils, respectively, through the Department of Local Government to absorb the amounts made available for such schemes from the Employment and Emergency Schemes Vote. The minor employment schemes programme is prepared from applications received in my office from rural areas in which there are sufficient unemployment assistance recipients to warrant the sanction of grants; and, as already stated, the sanction of rural improvements schemes depends on the acceptance of offers made to the landholders concerned. Without an undue amount of clerical work on the part of my staff, I could not say what number of proposals under the latter two heads have been reported as suitable by the inspectors. Work on employment schemes in County Clare will in the normal course be put in hands during the winter months, but a programme of drainage schemes for the development of privately owned bogs has recently been sanctioned for execution there during the summer months.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say if he is prepared to expedite the examination and sanction of these schemes so that work may be begun under them?
As I have pointed out to the Deputy, our minor employment schemes cannot start until the winter, and within the past week nine bog development schemes were sanctioned for his county.